Payer

Durham-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina will discontinue its grandfathered health plans Jan. 1.

Ongoing developments in Washington have led many to question the future of healthcare reimbursement programs like Value Based Purchasing, Bundled Payments and other population health-driven initiatives.

Iowa submitted a request to President Donald Trump's administration Tuesday to rewrite ACA regulations and give state officials authority to make emergency changes to their insurance laws, according to The Hill.

Indianapolis-based Anthem will stop covering emergency department visits it deems unnecessary for Indiana policyholders, extending the discretionary policy recently enacted in Georgia and Missouri, according to an IndyStar report.

One county in Ohio is lacking an insurer selling coverage on the ACA exchanges for 2018, down from CMS' June prediction of 49 counties, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.

Before Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna decided to move its headquarters to New York City, the payer mulled incentives offered by one other city — Boston, according to a MassLive report.

Indianapolis-based Anthem plans to withdraw 16 of 19 pricing regions of California's ACA exchange, leaving about 60,000 Covered California customers with one insurer choice for 2018, according to a California Healthline report.

Innovation Health CEO Dave Notari is leaving the role "to pursue other opportunities," effective immediately.

Counselors nationwide that help people enroll in insurance coverage on the ACA marketplace are starting their efforts earlier than usual this year, reports The New York Times.

Three of the five major commercial payers saw their stock prices rise last week.