Payer

The state of Oregon has released final decisions on rate changes for 2017 individual and small employer health insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the Statesman Journal reported.

Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare facilities are out-of-network for UnitedHealthcare commercial policyholders effective July 1, reports Atlanta Business Chronicle.

If Anthem's $48 billion bid to acquire Cigna falls through, smaller health plans could become targets for Cigna, while Anthem may court assets that might be sold by industry rivals such as Aetna and Humana, according to Bloomberg.

The president of Broomfield, Colo.-based Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System said the sale of the system's St. Francis Health in Topeka, Kan., is largely a result of Kansas' limited Medicaid expansion, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Dayton, Ohio-based nonprofit health insurer CareSource expanded its network Wednesday to include University of Louisville (Ky.) Physicians.

Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna and Louisville, Ky.-based Humana extended the deadline of their $37 billion merger agreement from June 30 to Dec. 31.

The following insurers made headlines this week. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent.

Louisiana saw 200,000 new Medicaid enrollees during its first week of enrollment, and expects that number to only rise. Yet an increase in enrollees will not come without challenges once Medicaid expansion begins in July, The Advocate reported.

Amid continuing questions surrounding its acquisition of Cigna, Anthem insists its completion of the deal is its No. 1 concern, according to the Hartford Courant.

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