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November 30, 2005
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MHMR Nov. 30, 2005; Volume 13, Number 20
SPECIAL REPORT: Dental Managed Care...’05 dental lives unchanged...Aetna, Assurant, Cigna, CompBenefits, United, PMI, UCCI, Safeguard...United to buy Deere Health Care...BCBS-IL cautious on specialty...GHC specialty drug costs rise...Chart: GHC specialty drug spend...MCOs valued at 6-19 times cash...Best affirms United ratings...Glasscock chairs WellPoint...Health Net names northeast CFO...Best raises Coventry outlook...MCO stocks rise 2%...Services stocks rise 4%...and more...
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’05 DENTAL HMO LIVES UNCHANGED
Dental HMO membership is expected to be unchanged in 2005 at about 13.33 million lives among eight leading dental plans.
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UNITEDHEALTH TO BUY DEERE HEALTH CARE
UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, MN) has agreed to purchase John Deere Health Care, the wholly owned managed care subsidiary of Deere & Co. (Moline, IL), for $500 million in cash or about $1250 per life and 0.67 times annual revenues.
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BCBS-IL SLOW TO TRIM SPECIALTY DRUG FEES
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (Chicago) has been slow to develop a specialty pharmacy formulary and to lower fee schedules in line with those paid by specialty vendors, according to Stanley Borg, D.O., chief medical officer.
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GROUP HEALTH SPECIALTY COSTS RISING 25% ANNUALLY
Group Health Cooperative (Seattle) is seeing specialty drug costs rise more than 25% annually, according to James Carlson, director, pharmacy clinical services, adding that “if this trend continues, this will be the single most important issue to address.”
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MCO VALUES RANGE FROM 6 TO 19 TIMES CASH FLOW
Managed care organization are being valued at anywhere from six to 19 times cash flow, according to a new study from Corporate Research Group called The Managed Care M&A Explosion: Implications, Valuations, and Strategies.
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WELLPOINT NAMES GLASSCOCK CHAIRMAN
As expected, WellPoint Inc. (Indianapolis) has named its president and chief executive Larry Glasscock to the additional post of chairman, replacing Leonard Schaeffer, M.D., who has retired from the company.
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HEALTH NET NAMES SHASSIAN CFO FOR NORTHEAST
Health Net (Woodland Hills, CA) has named Donald Shassian chief financial officer for the company’s northeast operations, which serves 830,000 lives in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Shassian, who served stints at Arthur Andersen, Southern New England Telecom and RSL Communications, had been serving as a consultant to Health Net.
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BEST RAISES COVENTRY OUTLOOK TO STABLE
A.M. Best (Oldwick, NJ) affirmed the “bb+” issuer credit and debt ratings of Coventry Health Care Inc. (Bethesda, MD) and raised the outlook on the ratings to “stable” from “negative.”
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