Payer

Sixty-three counties nationwide are expected to lack a health insurer selling policies on the 2018 ACA exchanges as of Sept. 13, CMS said.

Indianapolis-based Anthem is contemplating its 2018 participation in some states' ACA marketplaces as filing deadlines approach later this month, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

The U.S. uninsured rate dropped 0.3 percentage points between 2015 and 2016 to 8.8 percent, or 28.1 million Americans, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.

Centene Corp., a managed care and commercial payer in St. Louis, will acquire Fidelis Care, a Rego Park, N.Y.-based nonprofit managed Medicaid and Medicare plan, for $3.75 billion.

Several national health insurers pledged assistance before and in the wake of Hurricane Irma's landfall.

The five largest U.S. commercial health insurers — Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group — were mentioned on social media and in publications 26,700 times during the last week of August, according to a talkwalker report.

Becker's Hospital Review reported these five contract resolutions and dissolutions between payers and providers in the past two weeks, beginning with the most recent. 

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic Health System providers in Wisconsin and Minnesota are now considered in-network for Marshfield, Wis.-based Security Health Plan's policyholders.

The national average annual premium for individual coverage under employer health plans was $6,101 in 2016, according to SHADAC, a health policy research center affiliated with Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Vindell Washington, MD, transitioned from the provider and health IT sectors to become CMO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana June 8.