Payer

Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health and Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna will offer a jointly-owned health plan to residents in northern California next year.

The Iowa Insurance Division submitted a proposal to HHS under the ACA's 1332 wavier section seeking widespread change to its 2018 individual exchange Monday.

Across Ohio, Missouri and Washington state, CMS estimates 47 counties — or about 35,000 Americans — will lack an insurer selling on-exchange individual ACA health plans for 2018.

Tulsa-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma, the only payer still participating on the state's ACA exchange, said it will file individual products and rates for Oklahoma's 2018 exchange, NewsOn6.com reports.

Phoenix-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and St. Louis-based Centene's Ambetter arm filed plans with the Arizona Department of Insurance to participate on the state's 2018 ACA exchange, The Arizona Republic reports.

Denver-based Melody Health Insurance acquired Alamosa-based Colorado Choice Health Plans June 1 after gaining regulatory approval from the Colorado Division of Insurance and Attorney General's Office.

Indianapolis-based Anthem is planning several moves following its failed $54 billion merger attempt with Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna, according to an Indianapolis Business Journal report.

Based in a suburban Minneapolis, Medica is a small, nonprofit payer that covers roughly 700,000 people, with 137,000 of those in counties where it is the only insurer on the marketplace, according to Vox.

In the wake of Anthem's exit from Ohio's 2018 marketplace, a move that will leave over 10,000 residents throughout 18 counties without insurance options, state lawmakers want solutions to provide people with affordable healthcare, according to Governing.

While 12.2 million individuals enrolled in a health plan through the ACA exchanges in 2017, only 10.3 million individuals paid their first premium as of March 15, according to CMS' 2017 Effectuated Enrollment Snapshot.