PID approves Highmark-BCNEPA merger

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department has approved the merger between Highmark Inc. and Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania (BCNEPA). Click here to read more.

Highmark Update - Commonwealth Court Rules on UPMC Participation in Highmark Medicare Products

Earlier today, the Commonwealth Court ruled that UPMC must contract with Highmark for our Medicare Advantage products. Click here to read more.

Aetna Producer News: Update your email | ACA requires SSN |Consumer newsletter | In other news

Beginning this year, health insurers have to send the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) information about health plan members and their insurance coverage, including their Social Security number (or other tax identification number). Click here to read more.

Highmark seeks high premium increases for individual health plans

Highmark Inc. wants to raise premium prices by as much as 39 percent for individual policies to offset steep financial losses from selling those plans under the Affordable Care Act. Click here to read more.

Federally-facilitated Marketplace Agent and Broker Training and Registration for Plan Year 2015 Closing

Beginning on June 15, 2015, the 2014-2015 Federally-facilitated Marketplace (FFM) training and training curriculum completion certificates for Agents and Brokers will no longer be available on the Medicare Learning Network® (MLN) Learning Management System (LMS) as we prepare to launch the training for plan year 2016. Click here to read more.

Weekly PPACA Update Conference Call

In a continuing effort to assist our agent-partners in getting the information needed to flourish within the under 65 group and individual markets in Pennsylvania, we are holding weekly live webinars. They will serve as a place to get your questions answered and discuss topics and strategies that will lead to your continued success in the health insurance market. Click here to register.

Weekly PPACA Conference Call Archives

Click here to view the archived recordings of the PPACA Conference Calls.

Seeking Rate Increases, Insurers Use Guesswork

In a sign of the tumult in the health insurance industry under the Affordable Care Act, companies are seeking wildly differing rate increases in premiums for 2016, with some as high as 85 percent, according to information released on Monday by the federal government for the 37 states using HealthCare.gov as their exchange. Click here to read more.

Early clues to ObamaCare's impact

Five years after the passage of ObamaCare, the impact of the law on the nation’s healthcare system is beginning to come into focus. Click here to read more.

Congress and the Courts

A decision in the much-anticipated Supreme Court case of King v. Burwell is expected by the end of June, just in time for the NAHU Annual Convention in New Orleans! Click here to read more.

Exchanging Ideas

On Thursday, May 28, NAHU staff met with Healthcare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan to share suggested improvements to the federal exchange. Click here to read more.

Wolf seeks state authority over health insurance marketplace

Gov. Tom Wolf's administration said Tuesday it has formally applied to take over the operation of Pennsylvania's health insurance marketplace as the Democrat seeks a bulwark against the potential loss of health insurance subsidies for hundreds of thousands of state residents. Click here to read more.

March 31, 2015 Effectuated Enrollment Snapshot

About 11.7 million Americans selected plans through the Health Insurance Marketplaces as of February 22, the end of the “in-line” special enrollment period for 2015 Open Enrollment for individual market coverage. Click here to read more.

Burwell: Health care on threshold of big change

The health care system in the United States is on the threshold of changing the course of the nation and what happens now “can impact the life of every American more than any piece of policy or legislation we have seen in the recent past,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday. Click here to read more.

There is no denying that Obamacare is hurting small businesses, says NFIB: PennLive letters

On April 1, the National Federation of Independent Business took issue with an op-ed in which U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak claimed that the Affordable Care Act had been "good for small business." We explained that nothing could be further from the truth. Click here to read more.