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For 2014, health plans reimbursed customers $478 million in rebates as a consequence of the Medical Loss Ratio provision in the Affordable Care Act, equating to approximately $129 per benefiting family, according to a data aggregation from Mark Farrah Associates. 

BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona and Tucson, Ariz.-based Carondelet Health Network have signed a new four-year contract, ending a dispute that could have caused the insurer's customers to lose in-network access at Carondelet facilities, according to a the Arizona Daily Star.

Although open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act ends Jan. 31, the enrollment period has already seen a plethora of both recurring and first-time issues.

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New York is the first state in the U.S. to make pregnancy a "qualifying life event," allowing pregnant women to enroll in health insurance at any time through the state health exchange, rather than just during the three-month annual enrollment…

Currently, health insurers' Medicare physician directories that inaccurately include non-Medicare providers are merely an inconvenience for consumers. However, beginning in 2016, insurers can incur costly fines for such mistakes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

As of Jan. 1, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will begin offering its 2.8 million members some of the most comprehensive benefits for end-of-life care in the U.S., according to The Boston Globe.

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