UnitedHealthcare Medicaid managed care customers getting new manager

About 65,000 of UnitedHealthcare’s Medicaid managed care customers will get a new manager under a plan announced Wednesday. WellCare Health Plans Inc. has agreed to buy all of United’s Medicaid managed care business in a deal expected to close by the end of the year, according to a release. Service to customers should continue uninterrupted during the transition, the companies said. UnitedHealthcare said it will continue to serve more than 255,000 members enrolled in commercial health plans and more than 75,000 beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare programs and services in South Carolina.

Jobs report to be released Friday as planned

WASHINGTON The monthly U.S. jobs report will be released as scheduled Friday despite earlier concerns that Superstorm Sandy might force the Labor Department to delay its release. The report on hiring and the unemployment rate for October will be the final jobs report before Election Day on Tuesday. Department officials had said earlier in the week that they intended to release the report on time, but they didn’t rule out a delay. Much of the final work on the monthly jobs report must be done inside secure government buildings, and federal offices were closed Monday and Tuesday. Department officials said some employees came in Tuesday to work on the report.

Stocks closed mixed after market reopens following 2-day storm closing

NEW YORK Stocks closed mixed on Wall Street after the market reopened following a two-day shutdown caused by Superstorm Sandy. The Dow Jones industrial average gave up an early gain and closed down 11 points at 13,097 Wednesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 edged up less than a point to 1,412. The Nasdaq lost 11 points to end at 2,977.

Wireless networks coming back to life after Sandy

NEW YORK Federal regulators say that wireless networks are slowly coming back to life after Hurricane Sandy, with about 1 in 5 cell towers still being out of service Wednesday in a storm-hit area stretching from Virginia to Massachusetts. That compares with 1 in 4 cell towers that were out of service Tuesday, the day after the storm made landfall. Officials didn’t have a good count of how landline phone service was holding up, but anecdotal reports suggested it was available in more areas than cellphone service.

The Associated Press contributed.