Optum is set to complete its $13 billion merger agreement with Change Healthcare on April 5, 2022, according to a federal filing. 

A judge approved New York City's change to its retiree Medicare contract after a pair of lawsuits, but outlined a new timeline and conditions to its rollout, CBS New York reported Dec. 15.

Flume Health released a digital platform to help health startups build and manage health plans in as little as six months. 

After providing coverage to more than a quarter of the U.S. population in 2019, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program enrollment recorded increases of 8.9 percent between July 2020 and May 2021, according to a report from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois is adding Lisle, Ill.-based Amita Health's Cook County providers to its Blue FocusCare ACA network, doubling the network's size. 

UnitedHealth Group has its sights set on development through executive hires, sustainability initiatives and financial goals. 

Centene announced Dec. 14 that it will add a total of five new members to its board of directors, with four appointees already named and the fifth yet to be announced. 

Ten providers recently posted job listings seeking leaders to help payer contracting and relations. 

Provisions outlined in President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act could reduce employer-sponsored premiums by 1.1 percent on average annually, totaling $111 billion in savings over the next 10 years, according to a Dec. 9 Urban Institute analysis. 

The Defense Department issued Optum a $172 million contract modification for its indefinite-delivery bridge contract, according to a Dec. 13 news release. 

Managed care organizations are being asked to prioritize social determinants of health through state Medicaid contracts, according to a Together for Better Medicaid report shared with Becker's. 

Centene CEO Michael Neidorff is retiring in 2022, ending a 25-year tenure leading the company.  

Vermont's Department of Financial Regulation issued an emergency rule Dec. 8 that requires payers to fully cover over-the-counter COVID-19 antigen tests without cost-sharing, according to The Center Square. 

Artificial intelligence is woven across Humana, from finding value to training employees, Slawek Kierner, Humana's chief data and analytics officer, said during an AI Summit panel discussion, according to InformationWeek. 

On the heels of a legal victory out of a Nevada courtroom, TeamHealth CEO Leif Murphy told Becker's that he is both proud of a decisive win against UnitedHealthcare and wary that the company's remaining lawsuits against the payer won't shift a larger paradigm. 

Centene is considering divesting "strategic alternatives" for "non-core assets," including its international ventures, in an effort to streamline its business portfolio, according to a Dec. 10 news release. 

Employer-sponsored health costs rose 6.3 percent on average in 2021, nearly doubling 2020's average increase and raising questions about what 2022 may bring, according to a Dec. 13 Mercer report. 

Here are 79 C-level payer executives who entered or left leadership since Jan. 1, 2021, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and its subsidiary, the Accident Fund, received a labor complaint over its COVID-19 vaccination requirements and subsequent employee suspensions, according to the City Pulse. 

Nearly the same percentage of insured and uninsured Americans fear that a medical bill could bring with it financial hardship, according to a MITRE-Harris Poll survey.