Payer

Waltham, Mass.-based Devoted Health, a startup created by former athenahealth executives and Obama administration officials, has raised $360 million in venture capital to begin selling private Medicare Advantage plans to U.S. senior citizens, Bloomberg reports.

Tupelo-based North Mississippi Health Services notified patients it is ending a provider network agreement with Humana's Medicare Advantage plans due to frequent denials, according to the Daily Journal.

Another 4,109 Medicaid beneficiaries in Arkansas lost their health insurance in October after failing to comply with the program's work requirements for three months, according to the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

UnitedHealth Group posted strong results for the three months ended Sept. 30 and reported a previously undisclosed acquisition of a specialty pharmacy based in Phoenix.

While the healthcare industry expected passage of the ACA to curb participation in Medicare Advantage programs, the opposite took place, according to Kaiser Health News.

Pennsylvania and seven major health insurance companies reached an agreement Oct. 12 to remove prior authorization requirements for opioid treatment.

Aetna agreed to pay a $365,000 penalty after the insurance provider inadvertently breached the privacy rights of hundreds of New Jersey residents, the state's Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Oct. 11.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is standing behind one of its board members after multiple union groups protested for her resignation outside the insurer's office Oct. 10, according to the Boston Herald.

The average premium for the most common silver plans on the federal ACA exchanges is down 1.5 percent for the 2019 coverage year, CMS said Oct. 11.

Humana faces a $700,000 fine from the Texas Department of Insurance due to its network adequacy, the department said Oct. 8.