Jamie J. Gooch

Since posting its lowest annual growth rate in more than six years, the average cost of healthcare services accelerated in May and June.

The U.S. can learn from ways other countries slow prescription drug spending growth, according to a new policy analysis from the National Institute for Health Care Reform (NIHCR)

The Aetna Innovation Labs were created to test specific initiatives, determine success rates and impact, and expand programs that show promise.

Survey taker says payers are the only winners in healthcare reform; calls ACO member rules silly.

HealthPartners and Park Nicollet Health Services, have decided to combine to create an integrated healthcare delivery and financing powerhouse.

While employer-sponsored health benefits are not likely to disappear, changes that shift financial risk to employees are certain.

After five years at No. 1 in Surescripts’ Safe-Rx Awards, Massachusetts drops to No. 2 in the rankings of highest e-prescribing use in the nation during 2011.

Aurora Health Care has joined with Aetna to bring employers a new type of commercial health plan, the Aurora Accountable Care Network, which offers businesses a price guarantee

Legislators expect the bill to save $200 billion over the next 15 years.

Innovation Health Plans, which will serve northern Virginia, will be jointly owned by the insurer and the health system.

Sale of plans in three Texas and Arkansas markets will help Humana satisfy its government-stipulated divestiture so that it can complete its acquisition of Arcadian Health.

If you move from three stars to four, you might be able to earn another $50 per member per month.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s provisions for states to implement health insurance exchanges, combined with employers shifting more responsibility for healthcare costs to employees, is expected to create a greater demand for healthcare cost transparency.

As the Supreme Court debates the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, some states are taking a wait-and-see attitude on health insurance exchange implementation, while others are forging ahead. Meanwhile, private exchanges are gaining some traction.

People with private individual health insurance will save between $280 to $589 annually via health exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But who will pay for those savings?

A law that took effect in December would allow insurers to sell policies across state lines has no takers. The law was supposed to allow the free market to lower prices and increase choice.

Despite the fact that the federal government has not approved requests to waive a number regulations that would thwart it, Kansas is moving ahead with its KanCare Medicaid overhaul

Great American Supplemental Benefits Group, one of the largest manufacturers, distributors, and marketers of supplemental health insurance products in the United States, is being acquired by Cigna Corporation for around $295 million in cash

The ability of adults to obtain basic healthcare services in the United States has declined in nearly every state over the last decade, especially among those without insurance, according to a report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

UnitedHealthcare is offering SignatureValue Alliance in California, a new health benefits plan that features what it calls "high-performance" care provider networks aimed at delivering effective, evidence-based and cost-efficient care

Health Choice Arizona has instituted a new scheduling system to help it connect patients with appropriate community health resources on a timely basis. It wanted to find a way to help those members with the lowest incidence of preventive service completion quickly schedule their appointments.

One of the largest pharmacy benefits managers in the U.S. is about to get bigger. Health Net Inc. says it will sell its Medicare prescription-drug plan (PDP) business to CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) for about $160 million in cash.

A slowing of the growth in use of healthcare goods and services contributed to a second year of slow health spending growth in 2010, according to federal analysts. A number of factors combined to make 2009 and 2010 the two slowest growth rates in 51-year history of National Health Expenditure Accounts estimates.

Most top-quality health plans in the U.S. are offered by nonprofit organizations, says Bruce McPherson, president and CEO of Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care. He bases that claim on 2011 rankings recently released by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)

Cancer drives healthcare costs - to the tune of $124 billion on cancer drugs in 2010 alone - according to Medco, a pharmacy benefit manager. But nutritional counseling of cancer patients is often ignored, even though by some estimates most cancer patients will develop clinical malnutrition.

Nearly a third of the Medicare population is obese, which leads to more serious health problems that are expensive to treat. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have decided to cover obesity screening and counseling as a preventative measure, but are primary care physicians equipped to provide such services?

Prime Therapeutics (Prime) will administer pharmacy benefits for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) commercial customers staring in April next year. The companies say the move will result in lower pharmacy costs for BCBSNC customers and more flexibility regarding services and programs.

The Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Medco will measure teams on accuracy, cost, speed and completeness of genome sequencing. The goal is to push the industry to develop, more accurate, faster and more cost effective sequencing technologies.

Two University of Michigan (UM) developed healthcare initiatives were recommended to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in an Institute of Medicine report about the future of the nation’s healthcare.

Medicare Advantage plans may have a difficult time attaining four- and five-star ratings under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Five-Star Quality Rating System if they don’t keep up with the system’s changes.