Payer

CMS released its report card for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans Oct. 10.

Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the largest insurer in the state, recorded losses of $65 million in the last three years, and says soaring hospital prices are to blame, according to The Denver Post.

WellCare Health Plans expanded its value-based provider network to include agilon health, a Long Beach, Calif.-based group with 14,000 physicians, the Tampa, Fla.-based insurer said Oct. 8.

There is little consistency in how U.S. insurance plans cover nondrug therapies for patients with back pain, according to a study published in JAMA Open Network.

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.

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.