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Managed Care Companies
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PRICE TRANSPARENCY MOVES GINGERLY FORWARD
Price transparency—a notion that is viewed as a critical component of consumer-directed healthcare—is moving gingerly forward with organizations like Aetna (HMN, June 2006), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn. and the state of Massachusetts (HMN, June 2006) requiring or making available information on the cost of medical procedures at specific healthcare providers.
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PROVIDERS MUST GET USED TO COLLECTIONS, SMIT SAYS
With the advent of consumer-directed healthcare, physicians and other healthcare providers must offer cost transparency, improve collection capabilities, reorganize front-office workflows, and provide information to patients, among other challenges, according to Alan Smit, chief information officer, Premera Blue Cross (Spokane, WA).
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HUMANA Rx CALCULATOR ATTRACTS 5000 VISITORS DAILY
Humana Inc. (Louisville, KY) reported that its online drug cost calculator, designed to help members estimate potential out-of-pocket expenses for various medications, is attracting 5000 unique visitors daily, according to Bruce Goodman, chief service and information officer.
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HIP SEES LIMITED INTEREST IN CDHPs
HIP Health Plan (New York) is seeing only limited interest among its clients in consumer-directed health plans, according to John Mills, managing director.
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TUFTS, DESTINY END ALLIANCE; DOESN’T MEET GOALS
Tufts Health Plan (Waltham, MA) and Destiny Health (Chicago) have ended a three-year-old alliance to sell consumer-directed health plans tied to HRAs in Massachusetts after the venture fell short of enrollment expectations.
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UNITEDHEALTH HITS 1.8 MILLION CDHP LIVES
As expected (HMN, June 2006), UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, MN) announced that it had 1.8 million HRA and HSA plan lives as of June 30, up 79% from a year earlier.
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AETNA HAS 621,000 HSA, HRA LIVES
Aetna Inc. (Hartford, CT) reported that it had 621,000 consumer-directed healthcare lives in its HealthFund family of HRA and HSA-compatible high deductible health plans as of June 30, 2006, up 37% from year-end 2005.
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UNITED STUDY SAYS HRAs REDUCE COSTS
UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, MN) released the results of a study of 40,000 HRA plan members, which revealed a 3% to 5% reduction in per member healthcare costs over two years among individuals enrolled in an HRA plan compared to an 8% to 10% increase for members enrolled in a more traditional PPO.
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