Policy and Legislation
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.
Health reform is driving changes in the make-up of California healthcare markets, whether it's more construction in San Diego County or more integration and affiliations in Los Angeles County.
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.
An early February bill introduced in the House by Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) and Joe Heck, MD, (R-Nev.) has once again raised hopes that the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula payment model for Medicare can finally be repealed.
It's been a long time coming, but in early February, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the final rule for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.
The introduction of health insurance exchanges is generating interest among people who purchase their insurance directly, as well as those who have high deductibles and/or lower levels of overall satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Member Health Plan Study.