Community Benefit
Two months after announcing its intention to raise rates for 200,000 individual plan members - with some planned increases as high as 59 percent - California Blue Shield is withdrawing its rate filing with the California Department of Insurance and instead will hold both individual and family plan rates steady for the remainder of the year.
Proposed changes to charitable tax deductions may limit the ability of nonprofit healthcare institutions to raise funds, according to a survey by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.
The Department of Health and Human Services is launching a nationwide television and radio ad campaign aimed at educating the public about Medicare fraud. The focus of the campaign is to help seniors understand the importance of protecting personal information such as Medicare numbers.
Employers with self-funded health plans may find relief from expensive and unnecessary ER visits with a new e-Health service offered by Stat Health Services.
The poor quality of direct-care workers' jobs endangers the country's caregiving infrastructure, according to PHI, a national nonprofit organization advocating for the direct-care workforce in home and residential settings.
The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, is accepting proposals for grants to conduct health impact assessments.
Anthem Blue Cross and two medical groups from Sharp HealthCare will launch a pilot accountable care organization focused on serving Anthem's San Diego-based group, small group and individual plan PPO members.
The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative has launched a new Center for Accountable Care. The goal, according to PCPCC officials, is to help ensure that a strong, robust, patient-centered primary care model is at the foundation of accountable care organizations nationwide as a way to deliver better care and lower costs.
Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Kaiser Permanente Northern California were the only health plans to earn the maximum four stars for "meeting national standards of care" in the just-released HMO Quality Report from the California Office of the Patient Advocate.
The Carilion Clinic, the largest healthcare provider in southwest Virginia, has announced plans to collaborate with Aetna in an accountable care organization.