...ago, Brownstein had been running the Vaccine Finder to organize vaccine supply for Walmart, CVS and Walgreens. With over 70,000 locations over the country, 60 percent of adults were still not getting their annual influenza flu shots, which is a lifesaving vaccine. The percentage of non-vaccine users were also far worse in younger age groups. “You know that patients don’t have a lack of faith in the vaccine. It is a lack of awareness and education. Even though the vaccine is a block away, people aren’t willing to walk a block to get it. This is when we came up... Continue Reading
Search Results for CVS-Aetna
DOJ sues to derail Aetna-Humana, Anthem-Cigna mergers on anti-trust grounds (updated)
Breaking News. The anticipated shoe has dropped. With all the US news concentrating on the Republican convention, the US Department of Justice, late today, without much fanfare beyond the presser, lobbed lawsuits at Aetna and Anthem to stop their respective acquisitions of Humana and Cigna. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch was joined by Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General William Baer, who had been the DOJ’s point person for this anti-trust review. According to CNN’s report, Mr Baer said “the two mergers would leave consumers at risk by reducing benefits and raising premiums. He also stressed that the most vulnerable would... Continue Reading
A weekend potpourri of health tech news: mergers, cyber-ransom, Obama as VC?
As we approach what we in these less-than-United States think of as the quarter-mile of the summer (our Independence Day holiday), and while vacations and picnics are top of mind, there’s a lot of news from all over which this Editor will touch on, gently (well, maybe not so gently). Grab that hot dog and soda, and read on…. Split decision probable for US insurer mergers. The Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers will reduce the Big 5 to the Big 3, leading to much controversy on both the Federal and state levels. While state department of insurance opposition cannot scupper the... Continue Reading
Our wrapup of news and tart takes on HIMSS 16 (updated redux)
...initiative to bring interoperable technology to a wide group of healthcare providers, including long-term care, behavioral health providers, mental health providers and substance abuse treatment centers. Lots of people got lost in the Sands, fountains at NextGen’s booth, and pink socks+digital camo at SWA. Scroll down HIStalk Monday, after a brief on VA postponing $40 million of modernization funding for their VistA EHR after a business case analysis. There were unhealthy eats at HIMSS (did you expect kale?), iTriage (Aetna) layoffs, a slam on Michael Dell’s keynote and (drum roll) 10 Ways to Become a Highly Paid, Well-Received HIMSS Speaker.... Continue Reading
Telehealth reimbursement: a major growth obstacle overcome this year?
...emphasis on rural telehealth at that point (and still). Medicaid (state programs for low-income children and adults under CMS oversight and administered through private payers) is more generous, with most states providing some payment and some having parity (with in-person visits) regulations. A retrospective look at telehealth reimbursement is in a just-published paper by the Health Care Cost Institute (full PDF of report) which analyzed thousands of claims from four major insurers (Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and United Healthcare).to track trends in telehealth billings from 2009-2013. Key findings are summarized by senior counsel René Quashie of leading health tech law... Continue Reading
Outsourcing of retail clinics–another reason for HealthSpot’s demise? (US)
...of former travel industry executive Hal Rosenbluth’s 25 or so TakeCare Clinics around Philadelphia back in 2007. Yet further clinic expansion has been difficult as many locations have no physical space, there are restrictive state laws and the competition is everywhere between over 1,000 CVS Minute Clinics and local urgent care clinics. CVS also recently acquired 80 Target pharmacies and walk-in clinics. It’s reported that profitability has been a challenge for Walgreens in the clinic biz. Expect to see more of these arrangements to grow Walgreens’ clinic network. Why might this be a contributor to HealthSpot Station’s end? A change... Continue Reading
Care Innovations goes East–down home to Kentucky
...time) and all those wonderful Federal programs with lots and lots of funding. Louisville Business First, release. Speaking of the Aetna-Humana merger, it now has a strong boss man to make sure it works–Rick Jelinek, CEO for a year of OptumHealth, 19 years at predecessor now unit UnitedHealthcare including leading the Medicare Advantage and Medicaid businesses. The stakes are high in that the merger will create the second-largest managed care company in the US. Mr Jelinek also will lead Aetna’s enterprise strategy division, and will report directly to Aetna’s CEO. The timeline, unless the Feds put on the brakes, is... Continue Reading
Personal health ‘big data’ exchange is all good, right? Perhaps wrong.
Many of our recent stories have touched on ‘big (health) data’ as Achieving the Holy Grail–how it can be shared, how it can work with the Internet of Things and how poorly implemented personal health record (PHI) databases can derail national health systems (and careers) [TTA 22 Sep]. They are, after all, 1) extremely difficult to design to preserve privacy and 2) must satisfy patients’ requirements for easy use as well as privacy including opting out. But when despite all good intentions, data goes awry, the consequences can be severe. A daughter applies for health insurance from Aetna, and her... Continue Reading
IBM Watson Health adds 5 partners, 2 solutions
...Apple HealthKit into a personalized patient engagement program to improve individual health outcomes. The five new partners are Boston Children’s Hospital (pediatrics), Columbia University (Pathology & Cell Biology and Systems Biology), ICON plc (pharma clinical trial matching–Ireland), Sage Bionetworks (Open Biomedical Research Platform) and Teva Pharmaceuticals (treatments for chronic conditions–Israel). They join CVS Health, Medtronic and Yale University. On opening day, the new headquarters also hosted demonstrations by health ecosystem partners Best Doctors, Modernizing Medicine, Pathway Genomics, Socrates and Welltok. Release (PDF) Previously in TTA on IBM Watson Health: their big announcement at HIMSS 15 and we do wonder about... Continue Reading
CVS puts a retail triple spin on telemedicine
A definite boost to telemedicine providers American Well, now-publicly traded Teladoc and Doctor on Demand is retail drugstore CVS Health piloting their services through CVS MinuteClinics, starting in 2016. CVS’ release is disappointingly heavy on company quotations, light on specifics, but what can be determined is that CVS will test various arrangements, including onsite telemedicine in stores, through CVS ‘digital properties’ (presumably online or through apps) and MinuteClinic provider consults with telemedicine provider doctors. It carefully avoids referring to the three companies as ‘partnerships’ though it generically refers to them deep in the release. CVS currently has 1,000 MinuteClinic locations... Continue Reading
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