DaVita Kidney Care halted application support for Medicaid-eligible patients for ACA plans and premium assistance following a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report questioning the Denver-based company's motivations.
Payer
Aetna and Phoenix-based Banner Health will create and jointly own a health plan company offering employer-based insurance in Arizona's Maricopa and Pinal Counties, with eyes toward statewide expansion.
Health plans sold through the state and federal ACA marketplace are given a metal designation corresponding to the share of a consumer's health cost the plan underwrites.
Rising premiums and departing ACA marketplace insurers have raised concerns these challenges will only exacerbate as healthy enrollees forgo marketplace coverage and leave sicker, more expensive enrollees to influence risk pools, Vox reports.
To encourage policyholders to use in-network services next year, health plan co-op Community Health Options hiked its deductibles for out-of-network care by up to 472 percent, Portland Press Herald reports.
Advertisement
Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health entered into a participation agreement with Louisville, Ky.-based Humana. The agreement will expand the health system's Medicare Advantage network plan, providing healthcare access to nearly 9,000 Humana Medicare Advantage members, according to Digital Journal.
HHS projects 13.8 million people will buy ACA marketplace plans in the fourth open enrollment period beginning Nov. 1 and running through Jan. 31.
Maine insurance co-op Community Health Options has decided to drop coverage of elective abortion services, according to an NPR report.
UnitedHealthcare's absorption of Rocky Mountain Health Plans will undergo public scrutiny as the Colorado attorney general decides whether to green light the purchase, KJCT 8 reports.
One of the ACA's key advisers said penalties devised in the health law may be insufficient as a motivator for individuals to buy coverage, The Hill reports.