The Trump administration has planned 60 hours of downtime maintenance for the federal health insurance exchange — Healthcare.gov — during the 2019 open-enrollment period, which runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, according to The Hill.
Payer
In 2016, nearly a fifth of commercial insurance payments for the 20 highest-priced hospitals in Florida came from casualty, workers' compensation and travel insurers, according to a study published in the October 2018 issue of Health Affairs.
Four of the nation's largest managed care organizations may lose dominance in the employer health insurance market if they don't innovate ways to compete with employers, according to an Oct. 5. Leerink brief.
Since August 2018, about 60 percent of calls answered by officials with the Allegheny County Department of Aging concerned how a dispute between Pittsburgh rivals Highmark Health and UPMC will affect seniors' Medicare Advantage coverage, according to Trib Live.
The U.S. Office of Inspector General found Wisconsin's Medicaid program erroneously paid capitation payments totaling $589,478 for patients who had already died, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
CMS was ordered to pay Montana Health Co-op more than $1.2 million after a federal court ruled the agency must make cost-sharing payments to the insurer despite Congress providing no funding, according to an Oct. 5 final order.
Financial data for the first half of 2018 show that health insurers selling policies on the ACA exchanges are returning to profitability, according to an Oct. 5 brief published by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
A state-brokered consent decree between Pittsburgh rivals Highmark Health and UPMC expires June 30, 2019. After that date, Highmark Medicare Advantage members will be unable to access several UPMC providers and hospitals at in-network rates.
Immigrants paid 12.6 percent of premiums to private health insurers in 2014 but represented only 9.1 percent of the health insurers' expenses, according to a study published in the October issue of Health Affairs.
HHS' final rule on short-term health plans went into effect Oct. 2.
