Former Walmart associate Jacqueline Cote and her lawyers filed a motion today asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to grant preliminary approval of a class action settlement in Cote’s action that challenged Walmart’s lack of health insurance benefits for same-sex spouses of Walmart associates prior to 2014. [Read more…]

Sovereign Health, a leading national provider of behavioral health treatment services, has announced the seventh installment of the “Beyond NIMBY” series, a second series that addresses the strong community opposition to recovery-oriented housing and addiction treatment services for persons with substance use disorders in residential neighborhoods — often referred to as “not in my backyard.” [Read more…]

UPMC Health Plan Service and Sales Associates are now available to answer individual’s health insurance questions and meet your health care coverage needs at a new Monroeville Mall store. The grand opening celebration was today, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Read more…]

Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced recently that its subsidiary, Kentucky Spirit Health Plan, Inc. (Kentucky Spirit), has settled all lawsuits and complaints associated with its contract with the Commonwealth of Kentucky (the Commonwealth). [Read more…]

Seven California news stations have not aired a single story about Proposition 61 to educate voters on the measure that would cap state prescription drug prices, despite receiving nearly $1.7 million in ad money from the pharmaceutical industry’s record-breaking $126 million No campaign. [Read more…]

Consumer Watchdog today called out the Kaiser Family Foundation for holding a one-sided debate on drug price controls tomorrow that allows the opponents of Prop 61, the drug makers who raised $90 million against the effort to rein in California’s drug bills, a seat but leaves proponents out. [Read more…]

Health insurance premiums will likely increase by an average of 76 percent for Oklahomans who buy individual coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. The increases for individual market plans range from 58 percent to 96 percent. [Read more…]

Effective October 1, 2016, the Medi-Cal Fee-For-Service program provides unrestricted, $0 copay access to NARCAN® Nasal Spray for its beneficiaries. As a result of this decision, beneficiaries can now obtain NARCAN® Nasal Spray from pharmacists across the state within 24 hours, establishing an unprecedented level of access and coverage. [Read more…]

Alignment Healthcare has hired former Aetna executive Kevin P. Enterlein to head its Florida market, which the California-based population health management company entered January 1st. [Read more…]

Karen Brach has been named the new President of Meridian Health Plan of Illinois and is scheduled to step into that role on April 5. Brach is a managed care executive with more than 15 years of Medicaid and Medicare managed care senior leadership experience. [Read more…]

AmeriVeri (http://www.ameriveri.com/) helps protect the integrity of Medical Records and saves patients from unnecessary, costly and possibly dangerous treatments resulting from medical coding errors. What many don’t realize is how shockingly common these errors are. [Read more…]

While care transformation continues to lead the list of concerns for hospital and health system executives, this year two of the top four topics relate to patients’ non-clinical needs, according to The Advisory Board Company’s Annual Health Care CEO Survey. Specifically, meeting consumer expectations and patient engagement made notable moves up the list. [Read more…]

Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) has appointed Mark Brooks to Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Brooks will oversee the development and implementation of all information technology and systems for Centene. [Read more…]

According to the latest survey conducted by leading personal finance website GOBankingRates.com, 43 percent of Americans expect to pay more for health insurance in 2016, with 23 percent expecting to pay “a little more than the last year” and 20 percent expecting to pay “a lot more than the last year.” [Read more…]

GeoBlue today announced the appointment of Guillaume Deybach as President and CEO for parent company Highway to Health, Inc (HTH). This concludes the global search conducted over a period of several months for an exceptional candidate able to effectively blend industry expertise with strategic vision. [Read more…]

Leading global startup accelerator Dreamit announced today that the Dreamit Health program developed in collaboration with Penn Medicine and Independence Blue Cross (Independence) has received a $325,000 grant from Blackstone Charitable Foundation to drive innovation in the health care sector. [Read more…]

Capital BlueCross today announced Chris Davis as the company’s new vice president of ancillary services. Davis was previously vice president of sales and service at Dominion Dental Services, a national dental and vision plan administrator headquartered in Alexandria, Va. [Read more…]

ProAssurance Corporation (NYSE: PRA) announced that Chief Financial Officer Edward L. Rand, Jr. will assume additional duties as the President of Medmarc, the Company’s life science and legal professional liability insurance subsidiary. Additionally, ProAssurance announced the promotion of Karen M. Murphy, J.D., to Executive Vice-President of Medmarc and Head of Life Sciences for ProAssurance. The changes will be effective March 1, 2016, following the retirement of Medmarc’s long-time president, Mary Todd Peterson. [Read more…]

Paradigm, a molecular information & Next Generation Sequencing corporation specializing in providing testing for cancer patients recently announced that it has entered into a contractual agreement with UnitedHealthcare for coverage of PCDx™.

PCDx™ is a Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) based diagnostic test that is designed to provide physicians and patients with a more targeted, personalized approach to cancer treatment by identifying the underlying genomic and proteomic alterations of a patient’s tumor’s DNA, RNA & Protein.

Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP), with the approval of its Governing Board, added $5 million additional dollars to its Network Enhancement Fund (NEF) to bring new providers to practice in the Inland Empire (IE) to help improve access to care for more than 1.12 million IEHP Members. The program, started in late 2014, continues to add new providers to the Inland Empire. [Read more…]

As the number of Minnesota soldiers returning home after serving overseas continues to increase, so do the challenges that come with transitioning into work and civilian life. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross), which has long supported military members and their families through employment and community outreach, has been recognized as the first and only health insurance provider in Minnesota to be designated as a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon company following a unanimous vote by the State of Minnesota Yellow Ribbon Action Plan Review Board.

Overseen by the Minnesota Department of Military Affairs, the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program, established in 2008, supports service members, veterans and their families by connecting them with career counseling, professional development training and employment resources. In order to achieve a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon designation, companies must build relationships with local military leaders, identify which employees have military connections and commit to hiring and retaining veterans.

“In just ten days, January 31, 2016, most residents of Atlanta must have health insurance or face new tax penalties,” said Dr. Jane L. Delgado, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the nation’s leading Hispanic health advocacy group. She added, “making a decision on health insurance is not easy and many are looking for help they can trust. Our bilingual Navigators are ready to help!.” [Read more…]

Consumer Watchdog will challenge executives at a Department of Insurance hearing into the proposed Centene/Health Net merger to commit to strong consumer protections as conditions of a merger approval.

The Department of Insurance has broad authority to set conditions on the merger deal. [Read more…]

As monthly premiums for the most popular plans offered under the Affordable Care Act are seeing a 10.1 percent spike up from 2015*, GOBankingRates conducted a study to see which states’ residents are paying more (or less) for health insurance in 2016 – and what they’re getting for their money.

New York residents pay the most for basic health insurance, whereas residents of New Mexico pay the least, according to a new study released today by leading personal finance website GOBankingRates.com.

The study compared silver plans ? the most popular plan according to the Department of Health and Human Services ? offered through the national or state-level insurance exchanges administered through the Affordable Care Act.1

The lowest-cost silver plans for each state were ranked based on the favorability of the following cost factors:

The plan’s monthly premium
The deductible
The emergency care copay
The copay for care from a primary physician

To see full details on the methodology, visit:
http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/10-best-worst-states-health-insurance-costs/

CentraState Medical Center is establishing a new benchmark for patient education best practices by integrating video medication education with a patient’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) using in-room televisions. Partnering with TeleHealth Services, the 284-bed hospital is optimizing clinical workflows while proactively addressing readmissions, HCAHPS score improvement and Meaningful Use initiatives. [Read more…]

The deadline is drawing near for uninsured consumers to sign up for Affordable Health Care this month. Numerous legislators across the country continue to wrestle with whether to expand their state’s Medicaid provisions to accommodate ACA. However states and others can look at the efficiency of DC-based, Trusted Health Plan, a Medicaid Managed Care Organization that has made significant impacts in the marketplace with a business model that is providing cost savings and efficiency. “Our goal is simple… reduce healthcare cost, improve quality and expand access to care. We are positively impacting the lives of our members,” says Thomas Duncan, Trusted Health Plan; CEO. [Read more…]