Each OCGN PowerProfile explores the degree to which an organization bears financial risk for clinical quality and patient outcomes, displays the characteristics of integrated healthcare deliv…
Each OCGN PowerProfile explores the degree to which an organization bears financial risk for clinical quality and patient outcomes, displays the characteristics of integ…
HealthSpring, a carrier of Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, is now the largest national carrier whose entire focus is the senior population. With major operations in eleven states, the acquisition…
In the coming years, atrial fibrillation (AF) patients will increasingly have more choice for anticoagulation therapy. Although Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate) and emerging facto…
The market for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has grown notably in recent years because of increasing prevalence and diagnosis rates for both conditions as well as the greater…
According to the American Liver Foundation, 4 million Americans, or 1.8% of the population, are or have been infected with the hepatitis C virus. Approximately 70% of infected persons will develop a c…
Health plans in Wisconsin and Minnesota are rolling out new suites of wellness products that offer premium discounts, among other perks, for hitting specified wellness targets. Minnesota's State E…
Individual states are on the frontline for implementing the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A few of the first pieces of that landmark legislation include the implementatio…
Value-based insurance designs, medical homes and Medicaid reform, as well as the federal health reform law, are affecting the healthcare landscape in Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama. Large employers in…
In an effort to curtail the growing cost of specialty drugs, Regence has developed a new benefit design with a standard and extended six-tier formulary that combines medical and prescription drug bene…
Arizona has one of the hardest hit economies in the nation, according to various indicators. As a result, commercial healthcare enrollment is down and enrollment in the state’s CHIP program has been c…
Independence Blue Cross is one of the state’s largest health insurers, but is one of the last to cover its members’ self-injected specialty drugs under the medical benefit. But that’s changing in 2010…
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage continues to grow in the South though private-fee-for-service plans are leaving the market in anticipation of the Congressional mandate for network-based products in 2…
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…
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…