Payer

High-cost claimants who purchased health insurance through their employer were the No. 1 driver of healthcare costs, according to a new study by the American Health Policy Institute and Leavitt Partners.

Portland, Ore.-based Oregon's Health Co-op went into receivership status Friday and will close its doors — leaving 23,000 uninsured — in light of $900,000 it owes under the Affordable Care Act's Risk Adjustment Program and other high medical loss ratios.

Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna executives spoke with the U.S. Department of Justice Friday to assuage antitrust regulators who could oppose its pending acquisition of Louisville, Ky.-based Humana, an insider told Reuters.

Health insurers — including Tampa, Fla.-based WellCare Health Plans and St. Louis-based Centene — made offers on the Medicare Advantage assets Aetna will divest to help tilt regulatory approval of its $37 billion acquisition of Humana, an insider told Bloomberg.

A recent report from HHS says Americans living in rural parts of the country are gaining health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at higher rates than their urban counterparts.

The uninsured rate among U.S. adults has remained at an all-time low of 11 percent in the second quarter of 2016, according to the latest Gallup survey.

Access to providers and accuracy of information about provider networks is lacking for some health plans sold through Covered California and in the private market, according to a new study published in Health Affairs.

As Louisiana lawmakers struggle to find funding, nonprofit hospitals and health clinics have volunteered to finance the costs of enrolling state residents in Louisiana's newly expanded Medicaid program, reports Times-Picayune.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Tuesday mandating health insurers file proposed rate changes for health plans offered on the Affordable Care Act to the Missouri Department of Insurance for review, The Missouri Times reported.

A recent study from the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn., found surcharges put in place by the Affordable Care Act to transfer smokers' healthcare costs to tobacco users decreased enrollment and limited the ACA's goal of…