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…
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…
Big contracts were renewed or awarded for the first time in the Mid-Atlantic this summer. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (the largest health insurance carrier in Virginia) and Kaiser Permanente wil…
Beginning in January 2010, Tennessee plans to test a statewide database that will include claims data from claims paid by most of the payors in the state. The database is designed to improve transpare…
The effects of the recession continue to be seen among carriers in the South, particularly the Blues in both Alabama and Georgia where big drops in enrollment and earnings in 2008 were reported. Howev…
With the economy hitting California hard, the pressure is on more than ever for health insurers to respond to the small employer group market, in particular, with plan designs that get the premiums do…
Oregon's Drug Effectiveness Review Project is just the kind of independent comparative study of prescription drugs that health policy makers are looking to as they try to trim healthcare costs tow…
Recent moves to better control pharmaceutical expenses at the large TennCare program for Medicaid beneficiaries have resulted in compliance to preferred drugs by about 98 percent of the program's…
Missouri's Medicaid program is preparing to centralize management of pharmaceutical benefits for some 850,000 beneficiaries across the state. Previously, managed care plans managed the pharmacy an…
BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is more than just the 800-pound gorilla in the Palmetto State's healthcare market – it is parent to a family of successful subsidiary companies that provide…
In what may be a coming trend among large-scale employers with self-managed pharmacy plans, General Mills has hired its own in-house pharmacists to do medication management with targeted employees….
Economic forces have put pressure on the budgets of Missouri and Kansas, putting health reforms in the backseat for 2009. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon wants to restore some residents cut from Medicaid in 2…
Economic turmoil is nothing new in Michigan, where the auto industry's woes continue to get worse, and job losses and layoffs continue to shrink the healthcare market. Against that backdrop, Blue…