The Department of Defense will now cover gender reassignment surgery for active duty troops if it is deemed medically necessary by their acting physician and approved by senior military health officials, according to the Military Times.
Payer
Health insurers Aetna, Molina Healthcare, WellCare and Gateway Health Plan appealed their loss of managed care contracts that the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services granted to three other payers in August, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Health insurer Humana said it uses consumer data to categorize plan members into personality types to better target its care and products, MedCity News reports.
Amid a shift toward value-based care, some of Montana's largest healthcare systems and its biggest health insurer are teaming up to establish a pilot program to efficiently and securely share patient medical information, the Billings Gazette reports.
Albuquerque-based New Mexico Health Connections, one of six remaining co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act, is doing well, CEO Martin Hickey, MD, told Albuquerque Business First.
Maryland's Affordable Care Act exchange, Maryland Health Connection, has introduced a new mobile app aimed at helping people enroll in insurance coverage using their electronic devices, reports The Baltimore Sun.
The most popular health plans offered through Affordable Care Act exchanges on average have lower price tags than some employer-based health plans, CNBC reports.
Health insurer Aetna's CFO Shawn Guertin said the company is confident in its case against the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued to block the insurer's $37 billion acquisition of Humana in July, Louisville Business First reports.
Certain types of healthcare services were avoided by low-income workers who switched to a high-deductible health savings account plan as opposed to high-income workers with the same plan, according a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Somali-American medical transportation firms in Minnesota allege Blue Cross Blue Shield hired drivers, gained Medicaid members from Somali communities and subsequently let the drivers go, the Star Tribune reports.
