Payer

Small and family-owned pharmacies are being left out of a Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina initiative to help members buy healthcare-related items, according to The News & Observer.  

Insurers are well-positioned to manage costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as new healthcare business competition from Amazon, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Cigna announced six leadership changes across its insurance and Evernorth health services Dec. 10.

Humana will offer its own version of CMS' Primary Care First model across 48 states and the District of Columbia, the insurer said Dec. 10.

Centene completed its acquisition of Apixio, a healthcare-focused data science company, according to a Dec. 8 news release.

Bruce Broussard, the CEO of Humana, was named among Fortune's top business people of the year. 

The District of Columbia has some of the lowest annual health insurance costs for employees in the nation, according to a 2019 Commonwealth Fund report.

Here are six recent contract agreements and conflicts between payers and providers: 

Bon Secours Mercy Health and Anthem Health Plans of Virginia could not reach a new agreement that would have kept three of the Cincinnati-based health system's hospitals in Anthem's network.

Individuals in the U.S. are growing more concerned with their finances as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge, according to a new survey from Cigna.