Payer

New Bedford, Mass.-based Southcoast Health System and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts agreed to a new four-year contract.

Introducing a public health insurance option into markets could lower premiums among commercial payers, according to a study published by the left-leaning Urban Institute, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Between December 2017 and June 2019, more than a million children were no longer enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to census data analyzed by The New York Times.

Mobile-based University of South Alabama hospitals will no longer be in UnitedHealthcare's Mississippi Medicaid managed care and children's provider networks, according to the Clarion Ledger.

CMS said Oct. 22 that the average premium for silver plans on the ACA health insurance exchange fell for the second year in a row.

Insurance departments in five states approved Centene's proposed $17.3 billion acquisition of WellCare Health Plans, bringing the total number of state approvals to 24.

Humana filed a lawsuit Oct. 18 accusing 37 pharmaceutical companies of partaking in a conspiracy to increase generic drug prices, according to Louisville Business First.

UnitedHealth Group will lose two contracts with large employers to provide their workers retirement healthcare benefits, according to Bloomberg.

More insurers are covering genetic tests for psychiatric medications despite federal warnings and questions surrounding the validity of the tests, according to NPR.

Medicaid enrollment is dropping across states while total spending in the program increased modestly in fiscal year 2019, according to a policy brief published by the Kaiser Family Foundation.