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The recent pushback on health care reform appears to have boosted the stock prices of health insurance companies, which have outperformed major indexes by quite a margin so far this year. That's because Americans have been cutting back on doctor visits, keeping reimbursement costs low.

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) and Humana (HUM) are teaming up to offer a Medicare prescription drug coverage plan that they say will be the cheapest on the market. Premiums for the Humana Walmart-Preferred Rx Plan will be $14.80 a month, less than half the average premium for Medicare prescription drug...

Humana reported diluted earnings per common share of $2 for the second quarter, up from $1.67 in the second quarter of 2009.

One in five medical claims is processed inaccurately by health insurers, the American Medical Association said on Monday. Eliminating these errors could save the health care system save $15.5 billion of the $210 billion it spends annually on claims processing.

We probably won't be seeing many more stories of people losing their health insurance when diagnosed with cancer or for any other reason except fraud. That practice will end by May for many insurers who practice it. The new health care law mandates that rescission (cancellation of an insurance...

Federal legislators have found a major hole in the regulation of health insurance premiums before the new health care reform takes effect. This hole could lead to even more dramatic increase in premiums than the 39% increase announced by Anthem in California in February as the health care law was...

Major insurers -- Humana, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealthCare, and WellPoint -- announced they will extend insurance to those graduating from college and soon to be kicked off their parents' health insurance plans. Officially, the new healthcare reform law requires health insurers to allow young...

Starting in 2011, medical insurance companies will have to meet new rules on profitability. They will need to spend at least 85% of dollars collected in premiums for the large group market on medical care and at least 80% of premiums collected in the individual and small business group market on...

Medco Health Solutions's purchase of DNA Direct may be small in size but big in potential. It bolsters the pharmacy benefits manager's footprint in personalized medicine, a fast-growing field that uses a patient's genetic data to better target health-care treatments.

President Obama can't be pleased by the loss of a Democratic Senate seat which jeopardizes passage of his cherished health-care reform. The news, however, appears to have fueled a mini stock rally in the health-care and pharma sectors wary of how any reform would affect their businesses. The uptrend is expected to continue.