The manifest increase in health insurance cost has forced many employers to shift expenses to workers. Research has shown that the average annual deductible on conventional insurance has increase to over $1000. In the wake of this many people are enrolling under PPO or Preferred Provider Organization networks and many are not aware of the [...]

Simply put, PPO means you can go see anyone within that company’s network, without needing a referral. So if you are looking to see if your doctor is in a particular network, you should ask your agent before you buy health insurance.
Now before you buy a health Insurance plan, an incredibly important question you MUST [...]

At a time when the 250,000+ eligible Medicare recipients in Maine are increasingly concerned about finding affordable health insurance, they now have a competitive Medicare option for 2010.
The Today’s Options® Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) Medicare Advantage plan provides a cost-effective and comprehensive alternative to Original Medicare or a Medicare Supplement plan. People with Medicare can [...]

Careworks, walk-in clinics operated by Geisinger Health System, is now a participating provider with First Priority insurance. Nearly 275,000 First Priority members have in-network access to Careworks clinics inside select Weis Markets.
As a preferred provider, Careworks now accepts BlueCare HMO, BlueCare HMO Plus, Adult Basic or CHIP insurance from First Priority Health, as well as [...]

HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a leading provider of managed care market intelligence, reports that SeeChange Health, the first start-up health plan in California in recent memory, is rolling out this fall with a value-based insurance design model that ties benefit design to achievements in wellness. According to the new California Health Plan Analysis, the plan is targeting the [...]

SUNRISE – City commissioners and 128 managers at City Hall don’t pay a dime for health insurance.
That may soon change, if Commissioner Sheila Alu has her way.
“I think everyone should pony up,” Alu said Tuesday night as the commission debated a money-saving plan that would force civilian employees to pay more if they stayed [...]

In an era in which employers increasingly are having to shift more health-care costs onto employees, IBM  is taking the unprecedented tack of opting to pick up all expenses related to primary care for U.S.-based employees, beginning next year. In doing so, IBM is is among the first U.S. companies to cover primary care at [...]

Numerous Eastman Kodak Co. employees and retirees are seeing their potential costs double or triple for 2010 medical coverage.
Letters that went out to retirees this week indicated monthly costs for preferred-provider (PPO) coverage administered by MVP Health Care are going up from about $400 to more than $1,000.
PPO rates for current Kodak employees are going [...]

BM Corp. is changing its health benefit plans to provide 100 percent coverage for primary care, the company announced today.
“Employees and their families enrolled in IBM plans will receive full coverage throughout the year — no coinsurance or deductible — for in-network primary care office visits with their internist, family practitioner, pediatrician or general practitioner,” spokesman [...]

An Illinois circuit court has certified a class action case against Mid-Century Insurance Company, Farmers Insurance Exchange, and Farmers Group, Incorporated by Illinois medical providers who accuse the company of questionable practices to reduce medical bills from 2001 into 2004.
The case is pending in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois. Lebanon [...]