Chris Anderson

A lawsuit filed July 3 by roughly 50 doctors and a number of California medical groups including the Los Angeles County Medical Association and the California Medical Association accuses health insurer Aetna of regularly and systematically threatening doctors within its network with having their contracts with Aetna terminated for making out-of-network referrals.

Even as some governors vow to bow out of expanding their Medicaid programs in the wake of the Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act, WellPoint Inc. announced July 9 it will acquire managed care company Amerigroup for $92 per share or roughly $4.9 billion.

When politics gets in the way of policy, you end up with the situations like what is happening now in Texas and Louisiana, where Governors Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal, respectively, both strident and vocal Republican opponents of "ObamaCare," are on the record as saying they will not expand Medicaid in their states. This despite the fact the expansion will be funded at 100 percent by the federal government through 2016 and at no less than 90 percent in ensuing years.

A new survey of 200 healthcare provider CEOs shows that nearly half haven't identified a potential successor to the top management spot at their organization and only 17 percent feel they have someone who is prepared to step into the top spot.

The newest monthly Physician Wellbeing Index from online medical learning network QuantiaMD shows that 26 percent of primary care physicians report poor financial health.

A new report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows that health insurers that offer commercial and Medicare plans operate at a loss for their Medicaid plans, while those that specialize in Medicaid only operate at a profit.

A Government Accountability Office report issued late last week examining Medicare EHR incentive payments found only 16 percent of eligible hospitals and 9 percent of professionals received payments under the program in 2011.

A new accountable care health plan from Aetna offered in conjunction with Aurora Health Care will offer a price guarantee to employers, many of whom may see an average reduction of 10 percent based on their past claims expenses.

A new study sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund found that less than 3 percent of hospitals use all 10 recommended practices for reducing readmissions for patients admitted with heart failure or acute myocardial infarction (AMI).