Payer

The Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management alleged in a Feb. 12 report Health Net of California obstructed a federal IT audit, thereby violating its contract with the OPM.

UnitedHealth Group's Optum arm struck a deal with Reliant Medical Group, a physician group in Worcester, Mass., for at least $80 million, according to Federal Trade Commission filings.

The Justice Department said due to an accounting error, a proposal to fully fund the ACA's risk corridors program made its way into HHS' budget. The proposed funding has since been removed, according to Inside Health Policy.

California paid for Medicaid services on behalf of ineligible and potentially ineligible beneficiaries from October 2014 through March 2015, according to an audit performed by the Office of Inspector General.

The uninsured rate hovered at 9 percent, or 28.9 million Americans, in the first nine months of 2017, according to recent CDC data.

UnitedHealth Group plans to increasingly work with physicians, health systems and the government to boost Medicare bundled payment programs.

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield paid 38 hospitals in upstate New York $24.2 million in quality improvement payments in 2017.

The steady rise in C-sections from 21 percent of births in 1996 to 32 percent today is a major quality and cost problem.

Humana recorded charges of $148 million for a voluntary early retirement program and involuntary layoffs it initiated in 2017, according to financial documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Three Ohio legislators want to draft a bill barring insurers like Anthem who cover emergency department visits on a discretionary basis from state contracts and tax incentives, The Columbus Dispatch reports.