Reimbursement

A new report from health plan comparison website HealthPocket.com shows that fewer than 2 percent of all health plans sold on the individual market today provide all of the essential health benefits (EHBs) as required under health reform.

Community Health Systems, one of the largest publicly-traded hospital systems in the country, and Cleveland Clinic have announced a strategic alliance aimed at allowing the two organizations to share clinical information to improve care and operational efficiency.

A new report by Trust for America's Health offers solutions to policy makers and the public to increase preventative healthcare. According to the report, prevention improves health and productivity "while saving billions in health care costs."

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, in January executives from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group joined roughly 2,500 other corporate and government leaders from around the world to detail the concept of aligned incentives, called "resilient dynamism," which has emerged across industries.

With 30 million new customers who will be shopping for and buying insurance products starting in October, health insurance companies need to finds ways to change their business model to one that is more focused on the consumer, as opposed to their traditional business-to-business relationships. Jean-Pierre Stephan, management consulting lead for the Health Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Practice at Accenture, recently spoke to Healthcare Finance News Senior Editor Chris Anderson about the challenges awaiting insurers as they make this transition.

Health IT's hallowed bipartisan support ostensibly survived the presidential election and, subsequently, the fiscal cliff debate – but as the budgetary battles trudge on in Washington that fate is not so guaranteed as it once seemed.

Across the country, state governments are trying to come up with the most reasonable and effective ways to pay back their Medicaid deficits owed to hospitals.

Peoria, Ill.-based Methodist Health Services Corp. has filed a lawsuit accusing the region's largest provider of breaking antitrust laws with "exclusionary" contracts that limit commercial insurers' ability to contract with other hospitals.

Many healthcare leaders around the country are agreeing that 2013 is going to be a challenging year for hospitals and healthcare systems, and many are going to have to refine their thinking, said Jeff Jones, managing director at Huron Healthcare, a healthcare consulting firm.