Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas and TMF Health Quality Institute are working together to help doctors better manage the cultural differences between themselves and their patients. The program will educate doctors about "[a] patient's language barrier, culturally based health beliefs about disease and treatment options, personal space, nonverbal signals and religion," reports the San Antonio Business Journal. Report

> UnitedHealthcare may end its relationship with the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati because the two sides have been unable to negotiate a new contact. Up to 300,000 customers would be affected if the insurer and health system can't come to an agreement. Report

> In Pittsburgh, many residents are dismayed by the shrinking number of independent hospitals. …

In a move to simplify providers' administrative tasks, the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) has announced that twenty big-name healthcare organizations will work together to make it easier for doctors to verify a patient's insurance. Insurance verification is currently one of a provider's biggest administrative chores. "Today's announcement is the first wave of an industry campaign to reduce unnecessary administrative burden related to verifying patient insurance …

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is placing clinics into cost-and-quality trials, following a similar program it started for hospitals last year. The three-tiered system ranks hospitals by cost effectiveness, which garnered criticism when some of the state's best providers ranked low despite high quality. The clinic-ranking system takes into account quality, but "if there is not a lot of variation in office scores, then the tier is assigned by price, BCBS chief medical officer …

> Kaiser Permanente has bought Buenaventura Medical Group, the largest medical group in Ventura County, California. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. Report

> What does it take to retain young nurses?  For two San Francisco hospitals, it's a 22-week, $5000/nurse training program.  In just over a year, the program has already reduced turnover from 15 …

A coalition of health plans led by Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and America's Health Insurance Plans said it is launching a pilot program that will offer personal health records to consumers. The move appears likely to satisfy critics within the industry who have called for insurers to do more to encourage IT adoption. Privacy advocates, however, may be displeased by the implications of allowing insurers to share data on patient medical histories.

- read this article from Modern Healthcare

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City has launched a pilot program that allows members to consult with their physicians via email. Blue Care and Blue Advantage plan members will be able to contact their physicians for consultations on non-urgent medical matters. As many as 500 physicians are expected to be participating in the project by the end of 2006. RelayHealth will provide the technology and manage the compensation plan for participating physicians.

This is an idea that …

A state panel in Connecticut ruled that HMOs must disclose information about their billing practices. The state's Freedom of Information Commission ruled that four HMOs that run Medicaid networks perform a governmental function and thus are subject to disclosure laws. The companies involved are Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut, Community Health Network of Connecticut, Health Net of Connecticut and WellCare of Connecticut. The dispute arose after Yale School of Public …

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is starting a bank that will focus on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and other financial tools used in "consumer driven" plans. The Blue Healthcare Bank will launch at some point over the summer, organizers say, pending regulatory approval. The move will allow the association to tap into a potential customer base of 70 million people across the country. The bank will offer debit cards which customers can use to pay healthcare expenses and is …

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City said it will offer its members web-based consultations with their doctors using a secure system developed by RelayHealth. For a small copay, plan members will be able to log on and conduct an online meeting with a physician using the system. The crucial detail: Physicians will be reimbursed for the "virtual visit" by the insurer, although the exact details are apparently not available yet. Other Blues in California and Massachusetts have also …