Reimbursement

Health Care Services Corp., the largest customer-owned health insurer in the country with more than 13 million members, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana announced they would be aligning in a deal that is expected to provide the Montana Blue with added operational efficiencies.

  With childrens dental coverage set to expand in the next few years, the dental industry is trying to get a sense of what the dental insurance market, and the state and federal rules impacting it, might look like.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), a global investments firm, and the American Heart Association (AHA) have recently teamed up to launch a new research collaboration to study how effective workplace wellness initiatives have been at KKR and four of its portfolio companies.

Health spending grew 4.2 percent nationally in July relative to July 2011, up from the 3.9 percent growth rate experienced in June, according to the Health Sector Economic Indicators brief released recently by the Altarum Institute's Center for Sustainable Health Spending.

An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) report released last week that showed sequestration would cause an $11 billion cut to Medicare and looming cuts to physician reimbursements under the sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) has physicians groups saying the cuts would eviscerate their ability to provide quality care.

Certifi nabs Utah HIX business "Exchanges are going to come in all shapes and sizes," Jay Belschner, managing partner of the Minnesota-based consulting, software and compliance firm Certifi told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

  Consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) were offered by 58 percent of employers in 2011, making them the second most popular health benefits option for the first time, according to an Aon Hewitt survey of more than 2,000 employers.

Consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) were offered by 58 percent of employers in 2011, making them the second most popular health benefits option for the first time, according to an Aon Hewitt survey of more than 2,000 employers.

Timothy Bickmore, associate professor at Northeastern University's College of Computer and Information Science, has been working for the past decade in the area of "relational agents." He says these artificially intelligent avatars are poised for a promising future in healthcare.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) have shown considerable promise, demonstrating savings and reduced readmission rates, said a recent Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice study.