May 7, 2026
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (click here) is telling members who go to Michigan Medicine to start looking for other providers.
The insurance company's contract with the healthcare system ends on June 30, and negotiations for a new one have been unsuccessful so far.
University of Michigan Hospital patients like Larry Prout Jr., who's had more than a hundred lifesaving operations there, say his family is facing major out-of-network medical costs or giving up their 20-year relationship with University of Michigan doctors if Blue Cross Blue Shield and Michigan Medicine can't agree to a new contract by the deadline.
"I don't know what we would do. Stay at Michigan Medicine, and that's all we would have to do, and just figure it out," said Larry Prout Jr.'s mother, Kathryn Prout....
The profits the insurance companies are making is obscene. Blue Cross and Blue Shield can complain all they want, but, they are offering very minimal payments to the health care providers. This year alone the copays have increased at least five times higher than last year. Blue Cross, Blue Shield has moved Schedule one medications under the Affordable Care Act to schedule three or four. These are well established medications that are no longer protected by patent rights. This is nothing short of profiteering at the expense of it's subscribers. No doubt if BCBS were going to pay more to Michigan Medicine the subscribers would be the first to feel it.
It is time to seek out better coverage, not abandon the doctors and nurses that take on the toughest cases in the state.
By Bruce Japsen
Health insurer Oscar Health (click here) swung to a $679 million first quarter profit – the highest in company history – as its health plan membership jumped more than 50% and medical costs eased.
Oscar, which grew to 3.2 million health plan members as one of the nation’s largest providers of individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act, on Wednesday reported net income of $679 million, or $2.07 per diluted share. That compares to $275.3 million, or 92 cents in the first quarter of 2025.
Founded in 2012, Oscar had yet to turn a profit for a full year until 2024, but Mark Bertolini -- the former chief executive officer of Aetna who was tapped as Oscar’s top executive in March of 2023 and his team – have delivered on their promises as they remain bullish on the individual health insurance market even as rivals are retreating. This year’s first quarter profit was several times what the company made last year and the year before.
Oscar’s revenue rose 53% to $4.6 billion from $3 billion in the year-ago quarter thanks to the 56% increase in health plan enrollment from 2 million last year after Oscar expanded sales of its health insurance products into new markets for this year.
