Payer

If UnitedHealthcare and Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare do not reach an agreement by the end of June, some 150,000 patients could find their physicians out of network, 90.1 WABE reported.

Most health insurers would like to pay for many expensive medications based on their ability to improve patient outcomes, according to a survey by health consulting firm Avalere Health, STAT reported.

Employers allocate an increasing amount of employee compensation to healthcare insurance, resulting in lower wages, a HCMS Group study found.

The Connecticut Office of State Ethics opened a 30-day comment period in light of Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade's possible conflict of interest with a proposed merger between Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna and Indianapolis-based Anthem, Hartford Business reported. 

By selling its vision unit, Pittsburgh-based Highmark Health could bring in approximately $2 billion to assuage its recent loses, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare have terminated a contract agreement for services provided to Medicaid patients, reports Albuquerque Journal.  

HHS announced Tuesday it will stabilize and fortify the Health Insurance Marketplace by targeting uninsured young adults to enroll.

Seven Democratic senators urged the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday to block the Aetna-Humana and Cigna-Anthem mergers, with one lawmaker calling the proposed deals "job-killers," according to the Hartford Courant. 

UnitedHealthcare has dropped coverage with Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Group six months in advance of its exit from the state's Affordable Care Act market, according to The Record.

A California health insurance official signed off on Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna's $37 billion merger with Louisville, Ky.-based Humana after reaching an agreement with Aetna for certain conditions, California Healthline reported.