DRG Fingertip insights

The HealthLeaders-InterStudy Market Analyst team analyzes major developments at the nation’s publicly held health plans each quarter through their financial releases and conference call transcripts. T…

Group Health's governance as a nonprofit member-owned cooperative has attracted national attention recently as healthcare reform discussions in Washington DC look toward insurance cooperatives as…

With all eyes focused on the national healthcare reform debate, California is already tackling many of the same thorny issues raised by policymakers. Healthy San Francisco, the city/county’s 2-year-ol…

Type 2 diabetes currently affects almost 24 million in the United States and the prevalence of the disease is set to grow at approximately 3% per year over the next five years. As biopharmaceutical co…

A new agreement between Caterpillar and Walgreens could point the way to a change in drug dispensing for large employers. Under this agreement, Caterpillar contracts directly with Walgreens, where 100…

A stagnant economy and record unemployment have prompted health insurers to alter their plan designs and drug formularies in the Nevada market. HMO market share has eroded by 8 percentage points betwe…

Though Iowa has the second lowest health insurance premium rates nationwide, brokers and industry insiders warn that premiums, which went up 11 percent for many Iowa businesses over the last year, are…

Three major insurers — Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Humana and UnitedHealthcare — have teamed up with 11 local physician group practices and a local organization to pilot a patient-centered m…

Minnesota health plans are facing the specter of rising specialty drug costs and are implementing a variety of strategies to control those costs, including shifting specialty drugs from the medical be…

HealthLeaders-InterStudy periodically publishes special analyst reports on healthcare topics of interest.

HealthLeaders-InterStudy periodically publishes special analyst reports on healthcare topics of interest.

Pennsylvania stands out from most states because of the dominance of four Blue Cross Blue Shield plans that operate, for the most part, exclusively in their own territories. Whether the Blue plans’ un…