Payers news and information

Government officials have missed several deadlines in setting up new health-insurance exchanges for small businesses and consumers—a key part of the federal health overhaul.
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Costs are expected to rise after reform fully rolls out, and payers and providers need to transform their relationship.
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A smartphone app that launches this week gives the health insurance company Aetna access to detailed user health-tracking data. As costs spiral upward, healthcare companies could turn to such apps as a way to monitor customers and encourage healthy behavior.
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A new survey of more than 1,000 office-based physician practices expressed widespread and significant concern about the cost and the workflow burden perceived to be coming their way from the planned, nationwide rollout of the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedural codes.
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Some states that will be running their health insurance exchanges with help from the federal government are not receiving necessary information in a timely fashion, which may inhibit their ability to effectively prepare for the launch of their marketplaces, according to a study released Friday from...
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A typical 40-year-old woman in Maine going to the new state exchange to buy insurance may have just two firms to choose from while her counterpart in California will have a much wider selection.
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Federal officials are looking to scale back the use of long observation stays believed to be a response to Medicare auditors cracking down on inappropriate admissions.
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The Obama administration is working to fill in the blanks on financial elements of the coming health insurance exchanges, including options for enrollees without bank accounts.
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With the coverage expansion provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act just a few months away, insurers long accustomed to dealing only with major employers and their brokers are devising new strategies for marketing to individual consumers.
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Federal health officials have given final approval to a plan to overhaul Florida's safety net health insurance program. Gov. Rick Scott announced the decision on Friday, saying it would allow the state's Medicaid program to "to provide Medicaid users with quality, value-based and patient-centered...
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