Tracey Walker

The rate of hospitalizations that involved an injury likely due to osteoporosis increased 55% since 1995, to just more than 254,000 hospital stays totaling $2.4 billion in hospital costs in 2006, according to AHRQ.

Activity and progress increase on the exchange of health information electronically between physicians, hospitals, plans and patients, while cost savings have been identified.

AHIP healthcare reform ads touted as one that will resonate with many Americans.

The University of Miami and technology partners Microsoft and Resolute Solutions Corp. are teaming up to see if patients with diabetes can self manage their disease virtually while replicating the traditional patient-provider relationship.

Bayonne Hospital Center-Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey heats up.

UnitedHealthcare's acquisition of Health Net's NE licenses and rights to renew membership underscores that scale in local markets is an important asset as companies pursue growth and local focus is key.

Like other health insurers before it, Aetna considers selling off its PBM unit.

Sensitive to market pressures, 67% of employers prefer a phased approach to reform and 68% believe the current tax treatment of coverage should not be changed

Evaluate technology devices that your members use to determine the best ways to reach them with health outreach, enrollment, hot transfer and care coordination

Rethink benefit options and watch for new consolidations in your local provider market

United says it has no plans to follow suit by selling off its pharmacy benefit services. WellPoint will oursource now.

Employers' dependent eligibility audits find 5% don't belong on the plan. Next step is voluntary opt-out followed by removal.

After New York State Attorney General Cuomo's industry-wide investigation of allegations that insurers saddle consumers with too much out-of-pocket costs, UnitedHealth says it will develop a new, independent database. Consultants say this is emblematic of a more persistent problem: the relationship among payers, patients, and providers.

Walgreens’ launch of its employer-centric pharmacy, health and wellness program, exemplifies a move by providers of service innovating their delivery models.

Absent regulatory reform prompts Michigan Blues to make some hard business decisions while groups such as Put Michigan People First say BCBSM wasn't able to get individual insurance reform legislation passed because it failed to compromise with key stakeholders.

After scrutiny by the PID, Highmark and Independence Blue Cross called off their merger. PID argues that the union would have created an insurance monopoly in Pennsylvania. The two companies deny that the combination would not have lessened competition in the market.

Pfizer-Wyeth union is just another example of consolidation in the pharma industry.

Consultants speculate on who President Obama will tap to fill the HHS, FDA and IT Coordinator posts after Tom Daschle announces his withdrawal from the HHS appointment.

MCO execs should be looking at payment changes that are win-win for the payer, consumer

Kent W. Clapp, chairman, president and CEO of Medical Mutual of Ohio, the state?s oldest and largest health insurance company, died along with his fiancée, Tracy Turner, 40, when their chartered plane crashed into a Puerto Rico mountainside around noon on December 3.

Regardless of gains made by medications to control some lipids, triglycerides, like obesity and diabetes, are on the rise, according to WellPoint's HealthCore. LDL levels alone aren't enough to knock out heart disease.

A Mercer survey of benefits programs in 48 countries shows that there are global concerns about retirement and the cost of healthcare. The concept of retirement is changing so that more workers will be forced to postpone it and be covered longer by employer-sponsored plans.

PQC report shows that we cannot look at expanding access to care or decreasing costs in a vacuum?improving quality of care is key.

Health plans have been hit hard by major reductions in their investment incomes. Case-in-point: Los Angeles-based HealthNet, which announced changes in the responsibilities of senior executives after reporting lower-than-anticipated earnings for the third quarter.

According to a Mercer survey of employers, $1,000 deductibles became the norm in 2008. Deductibles are rising due to cost-sharing built into plan design, as well as the growth in consumer-driven, high-deductible health plans.

A CMS report predicts that Medicaid benefits spending will increase 7.3% from 2007 to 2008, reaching $339 billion and grow at an annual average rate of 7.9% over the next 10 years, reaching $674 billion by 2017.

In the past year, more employers asked for benefit plans that cover medical care overseas in order to rein in costs.

For managed care executives, the first step in lowering costs for specialty drugs is to look at the total specialty spend by combining information from the pharmacy and medical benefits, one expert says.

When Newt Gingrich recently suggested that in the future, consumer healthcare is going to look more like Travelocity and that consumers are going to go where the best care is and shop for the best price for drugs and services, Jonathan Edelheit, president of the Medical Tourism Assn., couldn't have agreed more.

National reports-The movement toward the patient-centered medical-home model has gained rapid momentum over the past year, marked by several watershed events.