Two Delaware healthcare systems and an insurance company plan to form a Medicare Advantage product together to sell in 2022. ChristianaCare, which dominates health care in Delaware and particularly New Castle County, Bayhealth, which offers services primarily in Kent but also Sussex County, and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware say their product will improve the quality of care and reduce costs for seniors in Delaware.
For several years now, medical authorities, business leaders and faith leaders — along with newspaper editorial writers — have encouraged the state legislature to institute Medicaid expansion. This would provide medical coverage for North Carolinians who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to qualify for a subsidy on the health-insurance marketplace, aka via the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
HHS has proposed modifying patient privacy rules to remove barriers to coordinated care. The AMA says the proposal is "well-intentioned" but ill-timed and incomplete, having the potential to whittle away protections designed to secure private health information.
Florida continues to lead the nation in the number of new people enrolling in Obamacare health plans during a special enrollment period that began earlier this year, according to data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In all, 1.5 million people in 36 states that use a federal health insurance exchange enrolled in plans available under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, between Feb. 15 and June 30.
HealthPartners UnityPoint Health will offer insurance plans for small businesses, further expanding its reach into the employer-based market. The West Des Moines-based company said Monday it will begin offering health insurance plans to businesses and organizations with fewer than 50 employees for coverage starting in 2022. These plans will only be available in 38 counties statewide that include Iowa’s biggest metro areas, such as Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Waterloo. These areas are also home to 80 percent of Iowans who enroll for insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act marketplace, HealthPartners UnityPoint Health President Becky Woody said.