Health Care Plans industry news provided by Financial News USA. Galichia Heart Hospital has again expanded its reach as an in-network provider, signing first-time agreements with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas and Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc. The agreements take affect Jan. 1 and are in addition to a similar deal Galichia signed earlier this year with Preferred Health Systems, which is in the process of being sold to Coventry. These are among a list of deals this year that insurers have signed with local health care providers that will essentially end exclusivity and create a more open market. "We think that it's important for the patients to have choices and for the (Galichia) hospital to compete on quality of service," says Steve Harris, Galichia's CEO, of the deals with Blue Cross and Coventry. This year, the state's largest insurers have expanded their Wichita reach by adding more institutions as in-network providers. [Read the full article]
On December 1, 2009, Judge Lawrence M. McKenna of the Southern District of New York entered an order granting preliminary approval of an historic $350 million class action settlement with UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH - News) resolving a nearly decades-long challenge to its practices involving reimbursement for health care services by out-of-network providers. Judge McKenna granted preliminary approval of the settlement, which had been proposed by co-lead counsel Pomerantz Haudek Grossman & Gross LLP (www.pomerantzlaw.com), over the objections filed by other counsel who had been involved in the litigation. After providing some 10 days of hearings and months of discovery to the objectors, Judge McKenna rejected any grounds for opposition, finding them not to be persuasive. [Read the full article]
The agreement will see the Louisville-based Humana open a health clinic for its employees and dependents in downtown Louisville in 2010. It will be jointly operated by MinuteClinic and Humana's subsidiary LifeSynch. Furthermore, the Humana-subsidiary will also join forces with MinuteClinic to provide Humana-members access to health screenings and illness management at about 500 MinuteClinic locations across the United States .
As per the agreement, the members of the health insurer will be encouraged to visit MinuteClinic locations for blood pressure testing, cholesterol screenings in addition to weight and body-mass index monitoring. Consequently, these members can take advantage of the existing health coaching services provided by LifeSynch in addition to the new facilities. [Read the full article]
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THE HEALTH-CARE BILL currently winding its way slowly through the Senate has struck fear in the hearts of many insurance company executives. But was it enough to persuade a top executive at managed-care provider Humana (ticker: HUM) to start selling his shares in the company?
James H. Bloem, Humana's chief financial officer and treasurer, sold 45,000 shares on Wednesday for $1.9 million, or about $42.49 per share on average. It was Bloem's first sale since May 2007 and the largest sale ...
This copy is for your personal, non-commerical use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. [Read the full article]
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