Tag Archives: consolidation

How to monitor the effects of insurance mergers

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Photo: Tyler via Flickr

When the American Medical Association publishes its next report on competition among health insurers, notice if Georgia makes into the top 10 among states with the least-competitive health insurance markets.

In the latest AMA report on competition, “The 2019 update to Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets, Georgia had an overall score of 2,284, meaning the market for health insurers was below the highly concentrated level of 2,500 under the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI).

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Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

As major mergers transform local health care, covering the business side is key

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Photo: Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Every few months a health insurance news story breaks that’s so big it is likely to require reporters unfamiliar with the beat to get up to speed quickly on how insurance works. A recent case in point came in February when a former medical director for Aetna admitted in a pre-trial deposition that he never looked at a patient’s medical record when approving or denying care. Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Mergers may transform health care as insurers encourage moving patients into lower cost sites of care

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Photo: Mike Mozart via Flickr

For decades, those who pay for health care have urged providers to move patients out of hospitals into lower cost settings such as home care and doctors’ offices.

That trend is accelerating today as seen in recent mergers involving insurers, pharmacies and providers. Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Experts outline framework to address health care consolidations

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Photo: Norman Mosjos via Flickr

The wave of mergers and acquisitions in health care in the age of reform hasn’t stopped – and three top-notch health policy experts in a recent guest post in Forbes explain why we should worry about that.

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Contributing editor to Politico Magazine and former health care editor-at-large, Politico, Commonwealth Fund journalist in residence and assistant lecturer at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Judge cites anti-competitive concerns in blocking Anthem-Cigna merger

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By AgnosticPreachersKid (Own work) (CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL), via Wikimedia Commons

By AgnosticPreachersKid (Own work) (CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL), via Wikimedia Commons

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has blocked the merger of Anthem and Cigna, the second court ruling this year against megamergers in the health insurance industry.

On Thursday, Anthem said it would appeal the Feb. 8 ruling promptly and request an expedited hearing. Cigna said it would review the decision and evaluate its options. Anthem has a financial incentive to appeal given that under the terms of the merger proposal, Anthem agreed to pay Cigna $1.85 billion if the deal fell apart. Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.