Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Let’s Talk Politics

Missed Visits, Uncontrolled Pain And Fraud: Report Says Hospice Lacks Oversight

Medicare Reconsiders Paying For Seniors’ Spine Operations At Surgery Centers

Mining A New Data Set To Pinpoint Critical Staffing Issues In Skilled Nursing Facilities

1,400 Nursing Homes Get Lower Medicare Ratings Because Of Staffing Concerns

Drug Trade Group Quietly Spends ‘Dark Money’ To Sway Policy And Voters

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Community Frets As Buyer For Cherished Rural Hospital Slips From View

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Congress And Health Care. Again.

A Transgender Woman’s Quest For Surgery Caught In Political Crosswinds

A Transgender Woman’s ‘Bait-And-Switch’ $92,000 Surgery Bill

Déjà Voodoo: Pharma’s Promises To Curb Drug Prices Have Been Heard Before

Time For That Colonoscopy? Probe Your Doc First On How The Scopes Are Cleaned

Purdue Pharma Edits Public Service Ad In Washington Post

Hospitals Gear Up For New Diagnosis: Human Trafficking

Profiles For Sale: How Bits Of Captured Data Paint A Valuable Picture Of Your Health

Can A Community Hospital Stay True To Its Mission After Sale To Large Corporation?

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Generali to sell wealth and services units for €409m

Italian insurance company Generali has agreed to sell two of its business units Generali Worldwide Insurance and Generali Link to Life Company Consolidation Group (LCCG).

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Drug Prices And Unicorns

Allianz acquires Nigerian insurer Ensure Insurance

Allianz Group has completed the acquisition of a 99.03% stake in Nigerian insurer Ensure Insurance from its main shareholder Greenoaks Global Holdings (GGH) for an undisclosed price.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

Assurant selects Shift Technology’s claims fraud detection solution

US-based Assurant has selected Shift Technology’s FORCE claims fraud detection solution to better mitigate fraud and subrogation losses as first steps towards claims automation.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

Covr Financial launches policy management system to track life insurance business

Covr Financial Technologies has launched Covr Insights, a complete policy management system to track, analyze and manage life insurance for financial institutions and brokerage agencies.  

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

TowerIQ raises $2m in seed funding

TowerIQ, a market neutral communication platform for insurance industry, has raised $2m in seed funding.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Facebook Live: The Marketing Plan That Fueled An Addiction Epidemic

Files from Fred’s basement: KHN senior correspondent Fred Schulte talks about a cache of files detailing Purdue Pharma’s early OxyContin marketing plan. These documents, which are more than 15 years old but still relevant now, offer insights into how these strategies contributed to the nation’s current opioid addiction epidemic.

Here’s the recent story he wrote on the topic. Click here to view the files.

For more in-depth conversations with KHN reporters, check out our Facebook video archive.

KHN’s coverage related to aging and improving care of older adults is supported in part by The John A. Hartford Foundation.

from Health Industry – Kaiser Health News

Global Atlantic launches new indexed universal life insurance product

Global Atlantic Financial Group has launched Lifetime Foundation ELITE, a new indexed universal life insurance product for individuals seeking simple, affordable and secure death benefit guarantees.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

FRISS, Rabobank partner on IBAN-Name Check to reduce insurance fraud

Rabobank SurePay has entered into a partnership with FRISS over IBAN-Name Check, a service that checks whether the name and the IBAN number match.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

Shift Technology to help HICFG develop health insurance counter fraud database

Shift Technology has been selected by H I Counter Fraud Group (HICFG) to develop a health insurance counter fraud database.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

US insurtech startup Next Insurance raises $83m for expansion

Next Insurance, a California-based insurtech company targeting small businesses, has raised $83m funding through a Series B round.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

Fineqia to buy equity stake in Black Insurance

Fineqia International is acquiring an equity stake in Black Insurance, a digital insurance startup on the blockchain.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

Retooled Vaccine Raises Hopes As A Lower-Cost Treatment For Type 1 Diabetes

‘Like A Ghost Town’: Erratic Nursing Home Staffing Revealed Through New Records

Look-Up: How Nursing Home Staffing Fluctuates Nationwide

Insurers Fall Short In Catching And Reporting Medicaid Fraud, Inspectors Find

Accenture to help build distributed ledger framework for multiple insurance use cases

IT services giant Accenture has joined the Institutes RiskBlock Alliance to serve as the lead framework architect in the consortium created for implementing blockchain technology across the risk management and insurance industry.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Aegon, Santander to extend insurance partnership in Spain

The Netherlands-based insurance company Aegon has agreed to extend its partnership with Banco Santander in Spain.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

GFT buys Canadian insurance tech firm V-NEO

GFT Technologies (GFT) has approved the full acquisition of all shares of V-NEO, a Canadian insurance technology company.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

Generali to sell majority stake in German life insurance unit to Viridium

Italian insurance giant Assicurazioni Generali has agreed to sell 89.9% stake in its German life insurance business to the Viridium Group for up to €1.9bn.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Whither Work Requirements?

Marsh invests in UK insurtech startup Bought By Many

Insurance broking and risk management firm Marsh has invested in Bought By Many, a British insurtech startup.

from IBR - Technology in Insurance News

AIA completes acquisition of Sovereign Assurance

AIA Group's subsidiary AIA International completed its acquisition of Sovereign Assurance, a New Zealand-based insurance company.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

Tennessee-Based Pain Management Group To Close Clinics Amid Financial Turmoil

Vulnerable Rural Hospitals Face Quandaries Over Questionable Billing Schemes

Two rural Missouri hospitals recently handed over their operations to a private company that promised to turn them around with a billing practice it calls “a lab outreach program.”

But the approach that company is using is drawing attention from lawmakers and Missouri’s auditor. It is similar to a tactic underway at 20 rural hospitals in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Florida and California.

Read KHN’s previous coverage of this topic: “Outsiders Swoop In Vowing To Rescue Rural Hospitals Short On Hope — And Money” by California Healthline senior correspondent Barbara Feder Ostrov.

from Health Industry – Kaiser Health News

Lloyd's CEO Inga Beale to step down next year

Lloyd's of London’s CEO Inga Beale is set to step down from her post next year, after serving for a period of five years.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

Out-Of-Pocket Costs Put HIV Prevention Drug Out Of Reach For Many At Risk

More Nurse Practitioners Now Pursue Residency Programs To Hone Skills

Delek scraps agreement to sell stake in Phoenix to Sirius

Sirius International Insurance’s proposed $684m acquisition of the Delek Group’s 52.25% stake in Israeli insurance company Phoenix has been scrapped after failing to get the necessary regulatory approvals.

from IBR - Life Insurance & Pensions News

A Baby Was Treated With A Nap And A Bottle Of Formula. The Bill Was $18,000.