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Healthplan – Cigna in the Headlines: 10 Recent Developments | Top 10 Healthplan news of the week
Cigna Expanding ACA Plans in Texas
Cigna will offer plans on the ACA Marketplace in 11 Texas counties for 2023, the payer said Oct. 12.
The plans will be available for purchase in Collin, Crosby, Dallas, El Paso, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Lubbock, Rockwall and Tarrant counties, according to a news release.
CVS Health Names VP of Public Affairs
CVS Health has named Gary Nuzzi as vice president of public affairs.
Mr. Nuzzi wrote in an Oct. 10 LinkedIn post that he will be “focused on telling the CVS Health story to public policy makers and influencers.”
Over the past decade he held several leadership positions at Adfero, a communications agency in Washington, D.C.
Group Pushes Back on Bill to Rename Medicare Advantage Plans
The Better Medicare Alliance, a national Medicare Advantage research and advocacy group, said the healthcare choices of the 29 million Medicare Advantage beneficiaries “deserve respect and support in Washington,” in response to two U.S. representatives’ proposal to rename the plans using that phrasing.
Reps. Mark Pocan and Ro Khanna’s legislation would also prohibit private insurers from using “Medicare” in plan titles or advertisements and impose “significant fines for any insurer that engages in this deceptive practice.” The pair allege Medicare Advantage plans “often leave patients without the benefits they need while overcharging the federal government for corporate profit.”
Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield Launching Veterans-Focused Medicare Advantage Plan
Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield will offer a Medicare Advantage plan tailored to veterans in 2023, the Rochester, N.Y.-based payer said Oct. 14.
The plan, Medicare BlueSalute, is designed to complement Veterans Administration benefits.
Are Readmission Rates the Best Measure of Hospital Quality?
Readmission rates are one of the top measures of hospital quality, with most hospitals even putting their revenue on the line if they have excess hospital readmissions. However, a group of doctors argues in a JAMA Viewpoint article that it is time to move past readmission rates as an indicator of hospital quality and deemphasize value-based payment models that make it a central measure.
Hospital IT – VA Postpones Oracle Cerner EHR Implementations | Top 5 Hospital IT News Of The Week
VA Postpones Oracle Cerner EHR Implementations to June 2023
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it is delaying upcoming EHR implementations of its Oracle Cerner system until June 2023 to address system challenges.
This decision comes after Denis McDonough, VA secretary, announced in July that the department would delay EHR deployments until January 2023 to resolve system deficiencies.
Health IT Vendors, Care Orgs Earn Surescripts ePrescribing Award
Health IT vendor Surescripts has announced the 2022 winners of its White Coat Award, which recognizes organizations supporting patient safety through ePrescribing accuracy.
This year’s winners include
- BestRx Pharmacy Software
- CenterWell Pharmacy
- CompuGroup Medical US (CGM eMDs and CGM APRIMA)
- DAW Systems, Inc. (ScriptSure Cloud ERX)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine
WY Health System Approaches Epic EHR Implementation Completion
Wyoming-based Campbell County Health (CCH) has made progress in its journey to transition away from MEDITECH and go live with an Epic EHR implementation effective on September 16, 2023.
Smaller organizations the size of CCH often do not have the resources or funding to tap the Epic EHR system, but through an affiliation with UCHealth, it was made possible.
MEDITECH Announces Advancements to Population Health Management Tool
EHR vendor MEDITECH’s population health tool will leverage aggregated patient data through Expanse Population Insight to help healthcare organizations gain a complete view of their patient population health needs.
“As evolving payment models and key industry drivers like health equity and consumerism continue to reshape healthcare delivery, our customers need solutions that help them see the full patient picture, regardless of where a patient receives care,” Helen Waters, executive vice president and COO at MEDITECH, said in a press release.
ONC-Funded FHIR Project for Patient Data Access Takes Health Equity Focus
The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School (Dell Med) has developed a health equity-focused patient engagement platform that supports patient data access through FHIR.Dell Med developed the tool as a 2019 ONC Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) for Health IT program awardee.The team proposed developing a patient engagement technology platform using application programming interfaces (APIs) and FHIR and SMART on FHIR, the same national standards used by EHRs.
IT – Facebook Parent Meta Admits Defeat | Amazon Debuts Home Insurance | Top 5 IT News Of The Week
Is the Uber and Lyft – Gig Economy Battle Over Workers Nearing Its End Game?-
In some ways, Uber and Lyft are back to square one.
With federal regulators set to tighten Trump-era labor standards that let Uber and Lyft, as well as food-delivery services like Doordash, treat gig workers as independent contractors with few protections under labor law, shares dropped sharply last week. But while a shift, the Department of Labor proposal doesn’t immediately transform gig workers into employees entitled to overtime pay, unemployment insurance and other benefits.
Facebook Parent Meta Admits Defeat After Giphy Deal is Blocked By UK Regulators
Meta, the owner of Facebook, admitted defeat Tuesday after U.K. competition regulators issued a final verdict ordering the company to sell its animated image-making unit Giphy.
Citing the risk of a substantial lessening of competition in the social media and display advertising market, the Competition and Markets Authority said Tuesday that Meta must “sell GIPHY, in its entirety, to a suitable buyer.” It is not yet clear which company will step in to buy Giphy.
YouTube Ends the Test Asking Users to get a Premium Subscription to Watch 4K Videos
Earlier this month, YouTube ran an experiment where it asked some free users to upgrade to a Premium Subscription account to watch videos in 4K resolution. The company has now ended this test — probably because of uproar from users.
In a tweet, YouTube confirmed the end of the experiment and said, “viewers should now be able to access 4K quality resolutions without Premium Subscription.” So all users can now watch videos at the highest resolution without paying for a subscription.
Amazon Debuts Home Insurance Store in the UK in Latest Move Into Finance
Amazon will start selling home insurance in the U.K. through partnerships with three local insurers, further expanding the e-commerce titan’s push into financial services.
The company announced Wednesday it is opening a new service called Amazon Insurance Store.
The product will show shoppers quotes for policies from insurance providers including Ageas, Co-op and LV+ General Insurance, with Amazon pocketing a commission on each sale from its partners. It is similar to offerings from price comparison sites like Comparethemarket and Moneysupermarket.
Texas AG Sues Google Over Facial and Voice Data Collection
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton unveiled a new lawsuit against Google on Thursday, this time alleging the search giant broke the state’s biometric data law by failing to get adequate user consent to collect and use voice and face information from millions of Texas consumers.
The complaint underscores the role of individual states in protecting users’ information on the internet in the absence of a federal privacy law. An Illinois class action suit against Facebook that settled last year for $650 million was brought under that state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, for example.
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