Officials at a Pennsylvania hearing this week questioned how Highmark‘s $475 million acquisition of West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS), a struggling hospital network, would affect its financial solvency and in-state competition.

State-regulated health care and insurance provided by the private sector, without any federal government involvement, would be more competitive, efficient and cost-effective, state and health care officials said at a conference July 18.

The U.S. Justice Department has expanded an investigation of Blue Cross/Blue Shield licensees’ alleged anti-competitive agreements with hospitals beyond Michigan, where it filed an antitrust lawsuit against the insurer.

The health insurance market, as federal health reform continues to be implemented, “continues to be rational,” the CEO of Aetna said recently.

UniCare is exiting the Virginia market, eliminating individual health insurance coverage for about 3,000 people, mostly in Northern Virginia, company officials said.

The head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division warned health insurers May 24 that deals that expand the market share of a dominant plan will be heavily scrutinized, if not killed.

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s plans to release the first of four reports on competition among the state’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers has hit a legal roadblock.

A new regulation mandating life settlement providers operating in New York to pay a $10,000 licensing fee are set to take effect next month, with one association lauding regulators for not imposing a higher charge.

While it has no problem with sharing its rate-filing request with the public, State Farm has filed for an injunction preventing Texas regulators from sharing what it calls “proprietary” information online.

A Woodbine, Md., insurance agent’s attempts to remain competitive cost him his insurance license in Maryland.