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…
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…
Even as health plans struggle to retain members in a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, moves are under way to redesign health benefits both by the private and public sec…
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield will have to change part of its formulary strategy as CMS prepares to ban the practice of reference-based drug pricing, used to boost generic utilization. Th…
Commercial membership in California health plans dropped by 12 percent in the first six months of 2008, according to data from HealthLeaders-InterStudy, and insurers are bracing for an additional drop…
The consumer-driven health plan movement is undergoing a shakeup in California with health plans passing along double-digit rate increases for renewing customers to make up for losses on the high-dedu…
While all the major insurers in California now have electronic personal health records in place, only about 5 percent of health plan members are taking advantage of them and the industry is struggling…
Kaiser Permanente of Colorado has agreed to provide $155 million in premium credits to Colorado consumers, translating to a $287 credit to individual and family plan members in 2009 and 2010. The agre…
Kaiser Permanente is preparing to make a huge strategic leap beyond its gatekeeper HMO roots by rolling out an administrative services only (ASO) product offering to large employers. The Department of…
California employers are hitting the wall on insurance premium increases and seeking cheaper plans that streamline benefits or shift more of the cost burden onto employees. Meanwhile, the state's…