Reimbursement

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are projected to increase enrollment by 11 percent in 2013 and that average premium prices will remain unchanged. The news follows last month's announcement that Medicare Part D prescription drug plan premiums would also hold steady.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder wants to turn Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan into a mutual insurance company and bring it under the same laws regulating other insure -- a plan that has company executives shrugging their shoulders.

U.S. Senator John Kerry is sponsoring legislation that would expand Meaningful Use financial incentives for providers that serve predominantly lower-income Americans but don't qualify for the Medicaid EHR incentive program.

Health Care Services Corp., the largest customer-owned health insurer in the country with more than 13 million members, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana announced they would be aligning in a deal that is expected to provide the Montana Blue with added operational efficiencies.

A recently released health policy brief examining the efforts in the U.S. healthcare system to improve care transitions concludes that simple solutions would go a long way to improving patient care and saving costs.

  With childrens dental coverage set to expand in the next few years, the dental industry is trying to get a sense of what the dental insurance market, and the state and federal rules impacting it, might look like.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), a global investments firm, and the American Heart Association (AHA) have recently teamed up to launch a new research collaboration to study how effective workplace wellness initiatives have been at KKR and four of its portfolio companies.

Health spending grew 4.2 percent nationally in July relative to July 2011, up from the 3.9 percent growth rate experienced in June, according to the Health Sector Economic Indicators brief released recently by the Altarum Institute's Center for Sustainable Health Spending.

An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) report released last week that showed sequestration would cause an $11 billion cut to Medicare and looming cuts to physician reimbursements under the sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) has physicians groups saying the cuts would eviscerate their ability to provide quality care.

Certifi nabs Utah HIX business "Exchanges are going to come in all shapes and sizes," Jay Belschner, managing partner of the Minnesota-based consulting, software and compliance firm Certifi told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.