Health Care, Health Insurers | featured news

Health insurance companies are developing services, tools and communication strategies to attract and retain customers The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is changing the way insurers do business. A few years from now, you may see your health plan in a different light.

Insurers and government officials say a new regulation regarding health insurance rebates may be keeping premiums lower for everyone.

Health insurer WellPoint Inc will buy rival Amerigroup Corp for $4.46 billion in a major bet on the expansion of the U.S. government's Medicaid health plans for the poor.

Insurance companies hailed the Supreme Court's ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, saying it gives them certainty about the rules they'll face as they push to cut administrative costs and reward doctors who contain health care costs by emphasizing preventive care.

Insurer UnitedHealth Group sees some parts of the health care overhaul as sound medicine and plans to keep them regardless of whether the law survives an upcoming Supreme Court ruling.

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

Embattled health insurer Blue Shield of California is planning to give back $167 million to some policyholders this year and to return more money in future years.

As health care costs soared nationally, a small Michigan firm gave Ford Motor Co. a proposal to cut its physical therapy costs. The automaker signed up for an in-state pilot program, which was so successful Ford expanded it last year to cover about 390,000 employees, retirees and their families nationwide. Yet the cost-saving program created by Pontiac-based TheraMatrix has come under attack from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

The Obama administration said insurers could charge more for children with medical issues, if states allowed it.

Progressive activists ratcheted up the pressure for health care reform Tuesday, picketing in front of a hotel where a group of insurance industry leaders were meeting.