Blue Cross of California
CA regulators plan limits to health policy cancellations
Two powerful state regulators have come together in California to propose rules limiting health plans' ability to retroactively cancel policies. The state's Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC)... Read more...
California MDs say health plan mergers bad for business
A few years ago, California physicians predicted that the mergers hooking up PacifiCare Health Systems with United Healthcare and WellPoint Health Networks/Blue Cross of California with Anthem Inc.... Read more...
ALSO NOTED: CalPERS cuts $225M deal with BC of California; D.C. retail clinic operator plans area expansion; and much more...
> The California Public Employees Retirement System, usually known as CalPERS, has agreed to pay Blue Cross of California $225 million over three years to run its self-funded PPO plans. Read more...
Health coverage cancellation rules slowed in Calif.
After nearly a year of censuring individual health plans for retroactively canceling individual policies improperly, the California state agency regulating health plans has yet to complete rules... Read more...
Blue Cross of California pays $31M in P4P bonuses
It's another prosperous year for a select group of medical practices and IPAs, that are getting $31 million in pay-for-performance bonuses this year from Blue Cross of California. This follows a 2006... Read more...
BC of California set to cut physician payments
Blue Cross of California (BCC) is making a move that won't do much to improve its popularity with physicians--it's cutting payments for about half the services and procedures performed by its... Read more...
BC of California wins delay on complaints hearing
I'm not sure how much the foot-dragging will do for them, but for what it's worth, Blue Cross of California's parent company has won a delay in a state hearing scheduled for this week Read more...
BC of California faces hearing on complaints
Over the past three years the state of California has logged more than 1,600 consumer, physician and hospital complaints about Blue Cross of California (BCC) business practices. Sparked by these complaints, the state's Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) now plans to hold a public hearing to look at whether the Blue plan has kept promises it made when it was acquired in 2004 by WellPoint. The hearing, which will take place next week, follows a Department of Insurance report …
... Read more...WellPoint plan cited for cancellations
Continuing with an ongoing industry-wide investigation, the California Department of Insurance has cited WellPoint subsidiary BC Life & Health for improperly revoking individual health insurance policies. BC Life & Health, which revoked 1,880 individual policies during 2004 and 2005, already was being sued by consumer advocates and lawyers for policyholders over the cancellations. Now it's facing the wrath of the Department of Insurance, which has found that more than half of the …
... Read more...BCBS of MA begins physician analysis program
Working with an outside information technology vendor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has begun a program designed to identify patients whose care isn't meeting clinical guidelines. The vendor, MDdatacor, will analyze data from EMRs, transcribed office notes, lab results, and cross-reference that with the plan's pharmacy and claims data. BCBS plans to use the analysis as part of its pay-for-performance program. BCBS will begin by offering the tools to a subset of its physicians, …
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