Rocky Opening Leaves Health Law’s New Co-Ops Jittery
Nothing is more important for a startup burning through cash than winning customers and revenue. So problems with the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces, also known as exchanges, aren’t just an inconvenience for the likes of Evergreen Health Co-op. They’re a threat. “It’s slowly getting better. Some people have gotten to the enrollment stage before […]
Experts Suggest Software Problems, Not Just Demand, May Be Behind Marketplace Glitches
Insurance companies confirm a small number of successful signups through the federal website.
On Day 2, Federal Insurance Marketplace Offers Mixed Bag Of Problems, But Also Successes
The federal health insurance marketplace continued to frustrate consumers Wednesday with delays and software failures, but some people also reported progress.
Obamacare Marketplaces Open, Despite Technical Glitches And Government Shutdown
The online marketplaces, also known as exchanges, sell plans effective as soon as Jan. 1. But they got a rocky launch, with software glitches in some cases and implementation delays in others.
Lessons From The Obamacare Data Dump
Among the insights: Competition lowers prices, options vary widely by location, and insurers think consumers prefer low premiums to low copays and deductibles.
Consumer Groups Criticize Anthem’s Narrow Network In Missouri’s Obamacare Marketplace
The insurer touts affordable plans, but the exclusion of some premier hospitals could reduce treatment options for some patients.
Swapping COBRA For Obamacare Likely To Be Windfall For Big Business
Experts expect people who are between jobs to gradually transfer to exchanges, a trend projected to save large employers billions in medical claims for ex-employees.
FAQ: How Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Is Changing
Employers are raising deductibles, giving workers health savings accounts, mimicking the health law’s online insurance marketplaces and nudging patients to shop around for treatments.
The Overlooked Obamacare Sales Force: Hospitals
Nobody has a bigger financial stake in the success of Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges than hospitals. And few may work harder to sign up consumers than hospitals themselves.
Obamacare Insurance Co-ops At The Starting Gate
The health law created 24 nonprofit, insurance company startups that will compete with long established companies starting next month.
Baltimore Ravens To Host Ads for Maryland Health Exchange
Updated 8:15 pm Tuesday. The National Football League backed away from promoting Obamacare insurance marketplaces this summer after a sharp warning from Republicans. But the Baltimore Ravens seem to have stepped — or at least edged — into the gap. By including health insurance ads on their Gameday TV show and other content, the Super […]
Survey: Big Business May Shift Retirees, Part-Timers To Insurance Exchanges
The National Business Group On Health’s annual survey of large employers asked whether they expected various groups currently covered by their plans to choose the health law’s new coverage in 2014.
Bare Bones Health Plans Expected To Survive Health Law
Retailers, restaurant chains and others find they can continue to offer such coverage and avoid the health law’s heftiest fines.
Why Health Law’s ‘Essential’ Coverage Might Mean ‘Bare Bones’
But how can a law praised for expanding coverage — one that includes an “employer mandate” to offer “minimum essential coverage” — allow companies to offer insurance that might not even cover hospitalization?
Brokers Associated With More, Cheaper Health Coverage, Study Says
Health insurance agents, feeling threatened by the Affordable Care Act, will welcome research from the University of Minnesota that supports their longstanding argument that agents and brokers make insurance shopping easier and cheaper. A new paper by economist Pinar Karaca-Mandic and colleagues finds that small employers were more likely to offer medical coverage in markets with many brokers […]
UPS Won’t Insure Spouses Of Some Employees
Partly blaming the health law, United Parcel Service is set to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere.
More High-Deductible Plan Members Can’t Pay Hospital Bills
As employers and insurance companies shift more health costs into workers’ pockets, hospitals are making a discovery. The pockets aren’t bottomless. “The number of accounts that we’re seeing that relate to these high-deductible plans has been building, and it has been putting pressure on our bad debt levels,” Tenet Healthcare financial chief Daniel Cancelmi told […]
Health Costs Are Still Tame, Insurer Results Show
Some give all the credit to Obamacare. Others cite the poor economy or employers forcing workers to bear more of the cost of their medical expenses. Whatever the reason, health-cost increases stayed tame through the first half of the year, insurers say. Thursday’s report from Cigna was the last dispatch on second-quarter financial results from […]
Maryland Regulators Slash Rates For Obamacare Insurance Policies
Consumer advocates praise rates that are more affordable, but others question whether they can be sustained.
WellPoint Sees Small Employers Dropping Health Coverage
As the nation prepares to roll out the next phase of Obamacare, the second biggest medical insurer said Wednesday that it expects to lose members in health insurance plans sponsored by smaller employers. At the same time, WellPoint expects membership gains in self-insured employer plans and in the kind of individual plans that will be […]
