Employers are fighting for data that they say shows how their health plans overpay for care Employers are losing trust in the companies they hire to run their health plans. Kraft Heinz Co. accused CVS Health Corp.’s Aetna of wasting its money by paying fraudulent medical claims. Two union health insurance plans in Connecticut alleged that insurer Elevance Health Inc. routinely overpaid medical bills. And the trustees of a bankrupt trucking company accused insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. of...

Hi, it’s John in New York. Most Americans are accustomed to watching their health insurance premiums rise each year. For some in Colorado, they’re going in the other direction. More on that below, but first... Today's must-reads In the race to develop weight-loss pills, some drugmakers are falling behind. Biogen shareholders elected the girlfriend of former director Alex Denner to the company’s board. UnitedHealth has purchased home-health provider Amedysis amid growing interest in the...

Big insurers who manage private Medicare plans are driving up seniors’ health costs, US Senator Elizabeth Warren said, urging the Biden administration to finalize new rules that would rein in how much the program pays companies. Insurance companies that operate private Medicare Advantage plans routinely make patients appear sicker to get bigger payments, Warren said in a letter this week to top US health officials. Unlike traditional Medicare, which pays caregivers for each medical service...

New Jersey extended its health benefits contract with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for another year even after state officials alleged the health insurer failed to meet the terms of the deal. The state will pay lower fees in exchange for reducing the scope of some services Horizon was originally hired to provide to state employees, according to the revised document posted on a state website. It removed a requirement for Horizon to provide a web tool where people can compare prices for...

When three-year-old West Cox’s fever hit 107 degrees, doctors called a helicopter. Hours earlier, the toddler, who’d been prescribed an antibiotic for a suspected ear infection, was at home in Princeton, West Virginia, watching cartoons and eating chips and salsa. Then, during a nap, he started to have convulsions, and his mother, Tabitha Cox, a physician’s assistant, drove him to the emergency room, stripped to his shorts to cool. Tabitha remembers the triage nurse’s eyes widening when she...