The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are telling children younger than 5, adults over 65 and pregnant women to avoid close contact with pigs at agricultural fairs after four cases of swine influenza infecting people were confirmed in Michigan and Ohio.

Aetna will exit 11 of the 15 state marketplaces where it currently offers coverage on the Affordable Care Act, citing the same “continued financial stress” as other large insurers that are scaling back exchange business in 2017.

Insurance companies offering coverage on the individual market have requested a 24 percent average increase in premiums for 2017, according to a new analysis.

The rate review mechanism enacted by the Affordable Care Act was intended to shame health insurers that asked for large premium hikes, but as the New York Times reports, insurers are trying to use it to their advantage for 2017.

Some 300 jobs will be eliminated at Springfield, Massachusetts-based Baystate Health, a decision the health system blamed in part of CMS's decision not to adjust one hospital’s mistakes that will cost facilities across the state millions in reduced Medicare reimbursements.

Anthem can expect a ruling on the antitrust case against its proposed $54 billion takeover of Cigna sometime in January 2017, past the end-of-year timeframe it had requested.

Possibly due to change brought about by the ACA, more small- and mid-sized companies are self-funding their healthcare plans, according to Kaiser Health News. 

Pathway Health, a post-acute consulting firm, and Virtual Health, a population health management technology provider, have entered into a partnership that will provide Pathway with strategic consulting services to improve technology and payment models.