Aetna

Up to 10,000 Aetna subscribers are caught in the middle of a contract fight between the insurance company and a 19-member cardiology group that says it provides most of the heart care at Abington Memorial Hospital. Negotiation battles between hospitals or doctors and insurers that go down to the wire - and beyond it - have become more common in recent years as insurance companies have faced more pressure from subscribers and employers to curb costs. The contract between Aetna and Abington Medical Specialists (AMS)

For the first time, some of the region's largest employers have formed a coalition to fight relentless increases in health-care costs by improving the quality of care. The 10 employer members of the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health provide health insurance for 100,000 people in the region, and they plan to use that leverage to create report cards and other tools to reshape health care. "If we all get together, we have a little more power, a little more clout," said Dottie McFalls, a principal in human resources at the Vanguard Group, which employs 11,000 in Chester County.

At a time when health-insurance premiums continue their steady rise, Pennsylvania legislators will likely pass twin bills in the Senate and House that will broaden the state Insurance Department's ability to review rate increases. That sounds as if it should be good news to health advocates such as Antoinette Kraus and Sharon Ward, who have been tracking the legislation in Harrisburg. The bills are set to come to a vote Wednesday. But it's not good news, Kraus and Ward say. "If this law passes, fewer rate reviews will be scrutinized," said Ward, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg.

In the Region Deb Shops gets OK for asset sale Deb Shops Inc., a bankrupt Philadelphia retailer of clothing for teenage girls and young women, won approval Tuesday from a bankruptcy court in Wilmington to sell its assets to lenders who were owed $75 million, after no competing offers were received. With no other bids, Deb canceled an Aug. 31 auction. Lee Equity Partners L.L.C., the private equity firm that bought Deb in 2007, is part of the purchasing group and will own 3 percent of the new equity, said Damon P. Meyer, a lenders' spokesman.

How's your health these days? Aetna Inc. said Wednesday that more members are refraining from using health-care services. That was part of what led to a healthy 9 percent increase in second-quarter income. The Hartford-based company, which has thousands of employees at the old US Healthcare offices in Blue Bell, has benefited by a trend that sees consumers skipping doctor visits and elective procedures during a recession. Aetna earned $536.7 million, or $1.39 a share, in the three months ended June 30, up from $491 million, or $1.14 a share, in the comparable period a year ago. Adjusted earnings were $1.35 per share.

Protesters crashed Aetna Inc.'s annual shareholders meeting in Philadelphia on Friday morning, accusing the Connecticut-based health insurer of publicly supporting President Obama's health-care plan while privately funneling money to its opponents - in particular, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Aetna chairman Mark T. Bertolini had just gone to the microphone at Le Meridien Philadelphia, a Center City hotel, when the protesters walked into the meeting, chanting and carrying signs. Hotel security and police hurried out the group of about 20, detaining three for 30 minutes.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has told Aetna Inc. that unless it revamps its Medicare drug policies by April 21, it will not be allowed to market Medicare prescription coverage. After Aetna, the region's second-largest carrier, changed how it covered prescriptions, some of its senior-citizen subscribers were not able to receive the medication they needed or were not able to resolve appeals quickly enough, the government said. "We take this very seriously, and we're working hard to reach out to our members and correct this issue," said Fred Laberge, an Aetna spokesman.