Affordable Care Act News

After Call Center Delays MNsure Officials Vow to Hire Staff

Officials at Minnesota’s health insurance exchange, MNsure, vowed to beef up call center staff for the final weeks of open enrollment, hoping to reverse lengthy call delays in late December 2015 that hearken back to the exchange’s disastrous first year …

New York Legislators Begin Examining Health Republic’s Collapse

Hospitals and doctors told New York senators Wednesday they’ve got $200 million or more in unpaid bills because of last year’s financial failure of the insurance cooperative Health Republic, and they want the state to step in. Other insurers and …

Once Profitable, Maine’s Community Health Option Is Now Losing Millions

The lone health insurance cooperative to make money last year on the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges is now losing millions and suspending individual enrollment for 2016. Maine’s Community Health Options lost more than $17 million in the first …

Health Insurers to Rebate More Than $2M to Delaware Consumers

Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart announced that insurers will issue more than $2 million in rebates to 14,399 health insurance policyholders in Delaware as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s 80/20 medical loss ratio rule. The rule requires …

Sudden Collapse of Health Co-Op in N.Y. Leaves Doctors Owed Millions

The sudden collapse of the largest nonprofit insurance cooperative created by President Barack Obama’s health care law is causing headaches in New York, especially for medical providers owed millions of dollars for treating the failed plan’s patients. More than 200,000 …

Michigan Places Consumers Mutual Insurance in Rehabilitation

The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) has placed Consumers Mutual Insurance of Michigan (Consumers Mutual) in rehabilitation. Consumers Mutual has been offering health insurance through Michigan’s health insurance marketplace. The company and the DIFS jointly announced in …

MNsure Selects O’Toole to Head Minnesota Insurance Exchange

MNsure has tapped its interim leader to run the health insurance exchange permanently even though she didn’t apply for the job. The health insurance exchange’s board selected Allison O’Toole to remain at the helm. She was chosen over health care …

N.Y. Congressman Urges Investigation of State’s Handling of Health Republic

U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y., 19th district) formally requested New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli investigate the state Department of Financial Service’s oversight of the failed Health Republic insurance co-op. State and federal regulators decided to close Health Republic, …

N.Y. Authorities Take Additional Steps to Protect Health Republic Customers

New York state authorities say they are taking additional steps meant to protect people covered by Health Republic Insurance as it shuts down. The New York State Department of Financial Services and Department of Health say about 100,000 individual members …

Nyquist Named Sole Finalist for Minnesota Health Exchange Post

Minnesota’s health exchange has named an experienced former insurance executive as the sole finalist to take over as the fourth CEO of the embattled, three-year-old organization. MNsure board members publicly identified Mark Nyquist as the lone finalist for the position. …