WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans sought unemployment aid last week, though the number of applications was still consistent with steady hiring.
The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications rose 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 313,000, the most in six weeks. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 11,500 to 294,500.
3. A more robust US job market adds 257K positions as pay jumps - Friday, February 06, 2015
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a vigorous 257,000 jobs in January, and wages jumped by the most in six years — evidence that the job market is accelerating closer to full health.
4. UnitedHealth earnings rise 6 pct, top Wall St. expectations - Friday, January 16, 2015
UnitedHealth topped Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter, and the nation's largest health insurer brought an optimistic vibe for the new year as it detailed final results from 2014.
The Minneapolis-based insurer said Wednesday that it expects stronger enrollment growth from Medicare Advantage plans, a key product that had been pinched by funding cuts in recent years. It also has already gained more than 400,000 customers through its expanded presence on the health care overhaul's public insurance exchanges, and operating earnings from its Optum segment, which runs several businesses outside health insurance, climbed more than 50 percent.
5. Help wanted: US job openings at 14-year high - Friday, January 09, 2015
WASHINGTON (AP) â?? The rapid hiring that made 2014 a stellar year for job gains is showing no sign of slowing down.
U.S. employers advertised the most job openings in nearly 14 years in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That suggests businesses are determined to keep adding staff because they are confident strong economic growth will create more demand for their goods and services.
6. Health care overhaul doubts ease for insurers - Friday, October 24, 2014
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — What a difference a year makes. The nation's biggest health insurers entered last fall cautious about a major coverage expansion initiated by the health care overhaul, the federal law that aims to cover millions of uninsured people.
7. Wal-Mart plans 1-stop health coverage shopping - Friday, October 03, 2014
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is taking one-stop shopping to another area: health insurance.
The world's largest retailer plans to work with DirectHealth.com, an online health insurance comparison site and agency, to allow shoppers to compare coverage options and enroll in Medicare plans or the public exchange plans created under the Affordable Care Act.
8. Health insurers: Payment rates above 80 percent - Friday, May 02, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top health insurance companies told members of Congress Wednesday that more than 80 percent of people who've signed up under the president's new health care law have gone on to pay their premiums — a necessary step for the enrollment figures touted by the Obama administration to hold up.
9. WellPoint helps investors breathe easy on overhaul - Friday, April 25, 2014
Investors pushed WellPoint shares closer to their all-time high price on Wednesday after the company raised its 2014 forecast again and became the latest health insurer to ease some worry about a key health care overhaul coverage expansion.
10. Stocks drift after Google, IBM earnings disappoint - Friday, April 11, 2014
Major U.S. stock indexes drifted between gains and losses in morning trading Thursday amid a crop of disappointing corporate earnings. Google, IBM and insurers UnitedHealth and WellPoint were among the big market decliners.
11. Aetna's 4Q profit jumps 94 pct, misses forecasts - Friday, January 31, 2014
Aetna Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled, thanks in part to a $6.9 billion acquisition, but the nation's third largest health insurer missed Wall Street's earnings expectations.
The Hartford, Conn., company also reaffirmed a 2014 forecast for earnings that could fall below analyst predictions. Its shares were little changed in premarket trading Thursday.
12. Some find health insurers have no record of them - Friday, January 10, 2014
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Record-keeping snags could complicate the start of insurance coverage this month as millions of people begin using policies they purchased under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
13. Some find health insurers have no record of them - Friday, January 03, 2014
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Record-keeping snags could complicate the start of insurance coverage this month as millions of people begin using policies they purchased under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
14. Middle Tennessee auto parts supplier Calsonic Kansei offers a blueprint for worker wellness, cost containment - Friday, January 03, 2014
With health care dominating the national conversation in 2013, it would be easy to view cost reform as a top-down proposition mandated by the federal government and forced on a reluctant market.
But in Middle Tennessee, companies were working on bending the cost curve long before Obamacare grabbed headlines.
15. Overhaul website problems may trigger price hikes - Friday, December 20, 2013
Problems with the government's main health care overhaul website carry a bigger risk than frequent crashes: Higher prices could follow for many Americans if technical troubles scare off young people.
16. Tech tools could transform health-care pricing - Friday, November 29, 2013
As retailers shift marketing budgets from paper to digital, more consumers are getting coupons and discounts on their computers and mobile devices.
It’s increasingly common for shoppers to redeem a deal by scanning their cell phone at the cash register or clicking on an email to take advantage of a flash sale on airline tickets.
17. Questions and answers on changing health care law - Friday, November 15, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just when you thought you had the president's health care law figured out, it's changing.
Some questions and answers about what's afoot and who's affected:
Q: What's the nub of the change, and why is President Barack Obama changing course at this late date?
18. Health insurer Aetna's 2Q profit rises 17 percent - Friday, July 26, 2013
Aetna Inc.'s second-quarter earnings jumped 17 percent, and the health insurer raised its 2013 forecast as it reaped revenue and enrollment gains from its acquisition of fellow insurer Coventry Health Care.
19. Lawyers see growing demand in health care specialty - Friday, June 21, 2013
Stuck in a stagnant legal career, or just starting out with no job openings in sight? The antidote may be a switch to health care law.
Attorneys with experience in health care have a good career prognosis in Nashville, thanks to federal reform efforts that are generating volumes of legal work in a wide range of activities involving health care companies.
20. Health insurers lead stocks higher on Wall Street - Friday, March 29, 2013
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high Tuesday after reports on auto sales and factory orders provided the latest evidence that the U.S. economy is strengthening. Traders plowed money back into European stocks as the financial situation in Cyprus appeared to stabilize.
21. Health insurers warn of overhaul-induced sticker shock - Friday, March 08, 2013
Some Americans could see their insurance bills double next year as the health care overhaul law expands coverage to millions of people.
The nation's big health insurers say they expect premiums — or the cost for insurance coverage — to rise from 20 to 100 percent for millions of people due to changes that will occur when key provisions of the Affordable Care Act roll out in January 2014.
22. Stocks end little changed after Fed rally fizzles - Friday, December 07, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended the day little changed Wednesday after a rally prompted by the Federal Reserve's latest economic stimulus program fizzled out.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 2.99 points at 13,245.45. It had risen as much as 81 points after the Fed said earlier in the day that it would extend a bond-buying plan and keep interest extremely low.
23. Obama pressing business and labor on fiscal cliff - Friday, November 09, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is lobbying business and labor groups to support $1.6 trillion in new revenue to avoid an impending fiscal cliff, telling the two sides he remains committed to requiring the wealthy to pay more in taxes.
24. Dow loses 313 in post-election sell-off - Friday, November 02, 2012
Wall Street greeted a second Obama term the way it greeted the first.
Investors dumped stocks Wednesday in the sharpest sell-off of the year. With the election only hours behind them, they focused on big problems ahead in Washington and across the Atlantic Ocean.
25. Stocks fade, extending a weeklong slump - Friday, October 19, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — A weak showing in home sales and more disappointing earnings reports are sending stocks lower on Wall Street, extending a weeklong slide.
Stocks had started out higher early Thursday following a strong profit report from Procter & Gamble, but indexes started to weaken in late morning trading after a realtor group said that the pace of home purchase contracts was leveling off.
26. Insurer Aetna to buy Coventry in $5.7 billion deal - Friday, August 17, 2012
Aetna, one of the nation's biggest health insurers, staked a $5.7 billion claim in the burgeoning market for government-funded coverage Monday when it announced plans to buy fellow insurer Coventry Health Care.
27. Stocks slip; Apple sets a record - Friday, August 17, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped Monday in one of the quietest trading sessions of the year. Worries about European debt crept up again, and Apple became the most valuable company of all time.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.56 points, or 0.3 percent, at 13,271.64. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell a sliver, 0.03 point, to 1,418.13. The Nasdaq composite index fell 0.38 point to 3,076.21.
28. Stocks slip ahead of crucial Fed, ECB meetings - Friday, July 27, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended slightly lower Tuesday as investors held back ahead of three critical events this week: policy meetings at both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank and a closely watched report on jobs in the U.S.
29. UnitedHealth's 2Q profit rises 5.5 percent - Friday, July 13, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — UnitedHealth Group said Thursday that its second-quarter net income rose 5.5 percent, trumping Wall Street expectations, as enrollment gains helped fuel revenue growth and consumers continued to moderate their use of health care services.
30. Hospital stocks jump after health care ruling - Friday, June 29, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospital stocks rose sharply Thursday after the Supreme Court guaranteed them millions more paying customers by upholding the core of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
31. Hospital stocks jump after health care ruling - Friday, June 22, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospital stocks rose sharply Thursday after the Supreme Court guaranteed them millions more paying customers by upholding the core of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
32. Health care, bank stocks lead stock market lower - Friday, June 22, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — Health care stocks tumbled Thursday after the Supreme Court upheld most of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, falling along with major banks as Wall Street worried about the European debt crisis and the sluggish U.S. economy.
33. Home sales sends stocks higher, but problems loom - Friday, April 20, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — On a day that brought both good and bad news about the economy, investors chose to see the glass as half-full.
U.S. stocks edged higher through most of Thursday, pushed up by a batch of bright earnings reports and encouraging news about home sales. But the gains were kept in check by a disappointing report on unemployment claims, a decline in some European markets and weakness at big-name companies like Aetna, UPS and Dow Chemical.
34. Materials lead US stocks lower as commodities dip - Friday, March 23, 2012
Falling commodity prices punished materials and energy companies Wednesday, pushing Wall Street's major stock indexes to a lower close.
Crude oil lost nearly $2 to $105 a barrel, hurting energy stocks. Peabody Energy fell 3.4 percent, Chevron 1.1 percent and Exxon 0.9 percent.
35. Big gain for stocks after Bernanke remarks - Friday, March 23, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks leapt to multi-year highs and recorded one of their biggest gains of the year Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the economy still needs help to produce faster job growth.
36. Insurers speed health care overhaul preparations - Friday, March 23, 2012
The nation's big insurers are spending millions to carry out President Barack Obama's health care overhaul even though there's a chance the wide-reaching law won't survive Supreme Court scrutiny.
It's not that health insurers want to bet big that the court will uphold the Affordable Care Act. It's that they can't afford not to. It will take at least several months and lots of resources for insurers to prepare to implement key elements of the law, which includes a controversial requirement that most Americans have health insurance by 2014.
37. Health insurer Aetna's 4Q profit jumps 73 percent - Friday, January 27, 2012
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Health insurer Aetna says its fourth-quarter net income jumped 73 percent, as it continued to benefit from low medical utilization and some key expenses fell.
The U.S.-based insurer earned $372.6 million, or $1.02 per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's up from $215.6 million, or 53 cents per share, in the 2010 quarter. Revenue climbed slightly to $8.57 billion.
38. Unusual coalition boosts health overhaul - Friday, September 09, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Betting that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul withstands lawsuits and a Republican repeal drive, an unusual alliance of industry, health care and consumer groups is laying the groundwork to sign up uninsured Americans.
39. Lewis, King, Krieg and Waldrop names Cole managing partner - Friday, July 08, 2011
Lisa Ramsay Cole, an attorney with the law firm Lewis, King, Krieg and Waldrop, P.C., for more than 18 years, has been named managing partner of the firm’s Nashville office.
Cole has an active law practice in the areas of employment law, workers’ compensation, medical malpractice and general casualty defense. She also is very active in the Nashville civic community where she is chair-elect of the Board of the Sexual Assault Center, among other involvements.
40. CVS Caremark 1Q profit falls on margins, costs - Friday, April 29, 2011
WOONSOCKET, R.I. (AP) — CVS Caremark Corp. said Thursday that its first-quarter net income fell nearly 8 percent on lower margins and higher costs.