Cigna is one step closer to dropping its Medicare business this week after finalizing the sale of its MA plans to the Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC) for $3.3 billion, so long as federal regulators approve the deal. It is set to finalize by the first quarter of 2025.
Late last year, the insurance giant was scrambling to find...
Yesterday the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported 745,263 MA plans were sold in Arizona during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) that concluded December 7, 2023. The Hertel Report put together some highlights of this year's MA market.
With nearly 1.5 million Medicare eligibles, Arizona's MA market is thriving and...
Nationally CMS reports 20.3 million people have chosen a Marketplace plan during the open enrollment period which closes January 16, 2024; about 3.7 million of those consumers were first-time shoppers on the ACA Health Insurance Marketplace.
It's already a historic year for the Marketplace with more than 18 million people in the...National News
Cigna is very ready to be done with its Medicare Advantage program, and may have finally found a buyer for its existing plans.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cigna was in advanced talks with the Health Care Service Corp (HCSC) to sell the MA business for between $3 and $4 billion. HCSC is the nonprofit insurer that...National News
Cigna will no longer pursue a deal to merge with Humana, putting an end to the potential $140 billion health insurance behemoth.
The companies were unable to reach an agreement on price or other terms, the Wall Street Journal reports. WSJ was the first to report last month that the two anticipated reaching a deal by the end of the...
It appears likely that Cigna and Humana, two of the country's largest insurers, are discussing a merger that some report could be finalized by the end of the year.
The first report of the potential deal came from the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the structure and terms of the deal were under wraps, but the deal does...
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) is facing a class action lawsuit initiated by two families of deceased Medicare Advantage policyholders who say that the insurer's use of proprietary AI software developed by UGH subsidiary NaviHealth, denied coverage for post-acute care and left them with an untenable bill.
The family members filed suit in...Arizona News
As regulators make efforts to rein in prior authorization delays and denials by private insurers and Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, Medicare and Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) are also garnering scrutiny over denials and network adequacy.
A new consumer survey from Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that roughly 60% of...Arizona News
The health insurer covers about 13,000 Medicare lives across five counties in Arizona and earned a four-star rating in 2023 for its Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in the greater Phoenix area where Evernorth Care Group, the medical practice division of Cigna HealthCare of Arizona, operates 20 healthcare centers.
Devoted Health MA...Arizona Comings & Goings
On Tuesday, CVS Health announced that it had completed its acquisition of Oak Street Health, a primary care provider which boasts 170 medical centers in 21 states. The acquisition is the latest in a long line of efforts by retailers to break into healthcare.
CVS Health paid $10.6 billion in cash for the network, and intends to grow...
New research shows 83% of entries in provider directories from America's leading insurers were inaccurate.
Most providers listed in directories from Aetna, Elevance, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealth had inaccuracies, but specialty information was much more likely to be accurate. Only 27.9% of physicians had consistently accurate...
Employers are increasingly moving retirement plans to Medicare Advantage health coverage, but the retirees in question are often upset with these moves.
The City of New York recently attempted such a pivot, which led to a high-profile fight in the courtroom and public politics. Perhaps most surprisingly, the City and some unions...
It's the time of year for insurers to file their fourth quarter (Q4) earnings reports for 2022. This week, Molina, Kaiser Permanente and Oscar Health posted financial metrics.
Oscar Health beat the odds in 2022 by improving its medical loss ratio from 88.9% in 2021 to 85.3%, Modern Healthcare reports. But the healthtech company still...National News
As the COVID-19 public health emergency winds down, insurers of Medicaid managed care plans are bracing to lose membership.
Centene is expecting it will lose 2.2 million Medicaid members during the redetermination process over the next year. According to Modern Healthcare, the company had 16 million Medicaid members at the end of...Arizona News
As discussions continue and the contract is being finalized, Phoenix Children’s remains an in-network provider for families with Cigna employer-sponsored health coverage. The original contract between the provider and payor was set to expire January 31, 2023.
President and CEO Robert L. Meyer said the children's hospital is...Arizona News
Phoenix Children's commercial contract with Cigna expires Jan. 31, 2023 and there's no new agreement yet.
One of the largest pediatric healthcare systems in the country, Phoenix Children's is located in central Phoenix and is already out of network for Arizona Cigna Marketplace and Medicare Advantage plan members, but Cigna's...Arizona News
This year's surprising exit of Bright Health on the Marketplace leaves $4 billion in ACA revenue up for grabs for brand name giants including UnitedHealthcare, Centene, Cigna, and CVS, but it's some lesser known short-term plans and Healthcare Sharing Ministries that are also gaining consumer attention with deceptive marketing touting...
Most shoppers who qualify for a subsidy won't feel the cost of rising Marketplace premiums and with eligibility expanded to include the cost of family coverage, HealthCare.gov may see the busiest season ever as it celebrates its 10th open enrollment period (OEP) Nov. 1, 2022 through January 15, 2023.
Eight insurers, but not...
Seven insurers, but not Bright Health, are offering individual and family coverage in Arizona on HealthCare.gov including last year's newcomers Banner/Aetna and Medica Community Health Plan. We reviewed the plan data from the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions and provide readers a Marketplace snapshot.
Nearly...
Medicare Advantage enrollees who use insulin may not know the insulin cost cap limits all monthly out-of-pocket costs for insulin to $35 -- and that could influence how they select their Medicare Advantage plans during the open enrollment period.
For the current open enrollment period, the insulin cost cap was not factored into the...