Payer

Medicare inappropriately paid $23 million for services recorded as rendered after beneficiaries had died, despite CMS safeguards meant to prevent such payments, according to an HHS Office of Inspector General report.

Pittsburgh-based Highmark claims Bridgeville, Pa.-based Radiance Surgery Center overbilled it by $1.7 million over two years, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.

Third-quarter net income at health insurer Cigna increased by nearly 19 percent, from $466 million in 2012 to $553 million this year.

The Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees have crafted a proposal that would repeal and replace Medicare's sustainable growth rate, the formula the program uses to determine physician reimbursement rates.

The Medicare Part A inpatient hospital deductible will go up by $32 to $1,216 in calendar year 2014, CMS has announced.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has blocked Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's executive order meant to force Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi to reinstate 10 hospitals owned by Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates into its network, according to a…

Third-quarter net income at health insurer Aetna increased nearly 4 percent, from $499.2 million in 2012 to $518.6 million this year.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has said calling a special legislative session to consider expanding the state's Medicaid program is "out of the question," according to a news release.

Next year, Medicare beneficiaries will not see their Part B premiums rise, according to a news release from CMS.

Paul Levy, former president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and author of the blog Not Running a Hospital, wrote a post comparing his health plan costs under Massachusetts' Health Connector and the Patient Protection and…