Healthcare Finance Staff
Cigna raised its full-year outlook after a third strong quarter, although the company's executives and investors are worried about sustaining earnings from Medicare Advantage, which saw high quarterly claims costs.
With healthcare reform, physician practice acquisitions have been occurring at a rapid pace for nearly four years. In our experience working on hundreds of contemplated physician practice acquisitions, we have identified a series of ten recurring challenges and missteps associated with these acquisitions and alignments.
The Medicare Part A deductible will increase by $32 in calendar year 2014, while the monthly Part A premium will decline by $9 or $15. Part B monthly premiums and deductibles will remain unchanged.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tried to placate members of Congress, promising progress for Healthcare.gov.
The Affordable Care Act's lower-than-projected premiums may dampen healthcare spending significantly more than first estimated, perhaps as much as $190 billion over the next 10 years in savings, according to a recent study from the Center for American Progress.
The three hours of questioning that CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner faced before the House Ways and Means Committee could be described by some as "a dog and pony show"--just more of the same intense finger-pointing and arguing Americans have grown to expect from federal lawmakers around the Affordable Care Act.
In a large batch of final rules covering about half a dozen Affordable Care Act policies, the Department of Health and Human Services is giving some self-insured and self-administered health plans a two-year exemption from reinsurance fees.
In line with other large insurance companies, Aetna posted lower third-quarter profits -- "another solid performance" from a diversifying business model, as CEO Mark Bertolini said, but just shy of investor expectations.
The senior Republican on the Senate health committee has introduced a bill that would require the administration to provide weekly reports on the Obamacare health insurance exchanges.
Cigna is expanding its role in mobile health through a new partnership with Samsung, which itself is trying to expand in healthcare.