Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart defended staffing the state’s new captive insurance bureau without requesting bids or conducting a formal search before a joint legislative panel.

After months of negotiations on a new deal regarding reimbursement rates, New York-based Stellaris Health Network said it can “no longer subsidize the record profits” of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and will end its contract with the health plan.

Officials in Cumberland County, N.J., have renewed their contract with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey for another year.

Millville, N.J., officials have renewed a contract with their long-time insurance broker, Allen Associates, and will switch to a new health care benefits provider for city employees.

UnitedHealthcare and Continuum Health Partners have reached a multi-year agreement to keep the health system’s four hospitals within the insurer’s network.

Aetna Better Health, the insurer’s Medicaid business, has received a contract with the State of Pennsylvania to administer benefits throughout the state.

An association representing the ambulance and medical transportation industry in Pennsylvania has filed a federal lawsuit against the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers in the state over practices they say cost them millions over the last four years.

Two companies that provide insurance for hole-in-one contests at golf charity events have been ordered not to write policies in Virginia.