Core and Group Health

The University of Wisconsin System overpaid for health insurance premiums and pension contributions by nearly $33 million over the last two years, including $8 million for more than 900 employees who had already left their jobs, according to a report released Thursday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday it will add its Arkansas employees to a state effort aimed at lowering health care costs by changing the way private insurers and Medicaid pay for services, and it committed $670,000 to create a tracking system that would measure the initiative's success.

Mercer has jumped into the exchange game. The consulting firm Thursday announced the launch of Mercer Marketplace, a private benefits exchange designed to help employers and employees by offering them a one-stop-shop for their benefits from multiple insurance providers.

Health insurer WellCare Health Plans Inc. has named a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission to its board of directors.

Shares of Humana Inc. are poised to rebound after a rough performance in 2012, thanks in part to growth prospects for the health insurer's Medicare Advantage plans, according to a Bernstein Research analyst.

Democrats and Republicans in Kentucky's Legislature are primed for a lively debate on federal health care changes that could provide Medicaid benefits to some 400,000 additional Kentuckians and create an insurance exchange that would make it easier for people to find affordable private coverage.