Healthcare Finance Staff

The 2015 open enrollment is off to a pretty good start and the new market is working, federal officials insist, but for consumers and insurers, there is still a tough slough, albeit of a different sort.

With many health information exchanges showing mixed success, the impetus to start digital patient data sharing is increasingly falling on payers. Some of Colorado's largest insurers are heeding the call.

Media attention about fines for business practices is one of the last things an insurer wants during open enrollment, but one state Blues is now faced with the task of damage control.

Payers are following the mobile craze with apps to attract and ideally better serve customers. That can be a fraught pursuit, opening insurers to scrutiny and raising questions about the very experience they're trying to offer.

Improving healthcare for the nation's Medicare-Medicaid dual eligible population seems to be just as complex as the beneficiaries' health needs, so state leaders are seeking help and more flexibility from the feds.

Competition, innovation and regulation are spontaneously combusting in one unlikely state, as a company trying to upend HR and group insurance sales comes up against the law.

Two health plans are being barred from further enrollment and another is being warned, as state regulators act on promises to ensure access and quality standards for beneficiaries.

The long-standing problem of hospital-acquired infections, adverse events and medication errors is improving, new data suggest, although 1 in 25 hospital stays still comes with an infection.

Here's a point of view guaranteed to upset those who religiously believe (nothwithstanding structural flaws) that the move to accountable care organizations with an accompanying shift of risk to providers is the way to transform the U.S. healthcare system.

For payers that offer Medicare, Medicaid and hybrid government-sponsored plans, the regulations established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services present significant challenges in generating customer communications that are compliant as well as effective.