Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has made its own in-house provider portal into the go-to site for Medicare elibibility and benefit information, even for those who are not its customers.
In Michigan, an attempt to dilute the healthcare purchasing power of the large public employee unions has not brought the desired result, at least not yet. The legislation designed to enable creation of smaller insurance purchasing pools has resulted in a fight over claims data that has stalled changes for now.
HMOs in Michigan are holding onto their members, but medical loss ratios are on the rise and margins are relatively low compared to national plans. But at least two HMOs are investing and expanding into new territory.