Chris Anderson

Roughly $48 billion of Medicare’s $507 billion budget in 2010 went to fraudulent or improper payments, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will have little net effect on overall employment but should provide a modest boost in healthcare sector employment, according to the Urban Institute.

Less than a week after Blue Shield of California shelved its planned increases for individual members, Anthem Blue Cross has decided to decrease its planned rate hike and withhold increases in co-payments and deductibles for more than 600,000 members enrolled in its family plans.

Small business owners in California said they would be more likely to offer health insurance after learning about tax credits available under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new poll by Pacific Community Ventures.

Two months after announcing its intention to raise rates for 200,000 individual plan members - with some planned increases as high as 59 percent - California Blue Shield is withdrawing its rate filing with the California Department of Insurance and instead will hold both individual and family plan rates steady for the remainder of the year.

Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provided health benefits to nearly 75 million people last year - or nearly one-in-four people - according to the inaugural report of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).

The Department of Health and Human Services is launching a nationwide television and radio ad campaign aimed at educating the public about Medicare fraud. The focus of the campaign is to help seniors understand the importance of protecting personal information such as Medicare numbers.

Anthem Blue Cross will offer hospitalist services to its Medi-Cal members in California's Los Angeles County through a new program with medical management services company ApolloMed.

Anthem Blue Cross and two medical groups from Sharp HealthCare will launch a pilot accountable care organization focused on serving Anthem's San Diego-based group, small group and individual plan PPO members.

Congressmen Charles Boustany (R-La.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) have introduced a bill that would allow consumers more time to withdraw and pay taxes on their medical flexible spending accounts instead of forfeiting the remaining balance to their employer at the end of each year, as current rules require.