Payer

Here are seven contract impasses and agreements that took place between payers and providers since May 1.

Carrollton, Mo.-based Carroll County Memorial Hospital and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky extended their network agreement to include the insurer's health maintenance organization and preferred provider organization plans, according to The News Democrat. 

Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare and Louisville, Ky.-based Humana reached a multiyear agreement to reinstate in-network access to all Tenet providers, according to Tenet's first quarter financial results.

Durham-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina requested a 22.9 percent average rate increase for health plans it sells on the ACA exchange.

Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna will distribute a one-time award of five stocks to each of its more than 40,000 employees and expand its paid leave.

Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Optum, the health services platform of Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group, entered a multiyear agreement with Merck to link prescription drug reimbursement to patient outcomes.

Roughly one-sixth of elderly or ill Americans could face "extremely high premiums" under the House-approved American Health Care Act, according to the Congressional Budget Office's score of the bill released Wednesday.

Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp., the umbrella organization of Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies in five states, reported a $1.3 billion year-over-year increase in profit in the first quarter of 2017, Axios reports.

Memphis, Tenn.-based Saint Francis Healthcare and Louisville, Ky.-based Humana inked a provider network agreement after going out of network with each other in October, according to a Memphis Business Journal report.

The following payers made headlines this week, beginning with the most recent.