cross blue

MEDecision will create 6.5 million "patient clinical summaries" for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. The Pennsylvania-based software company was involved in the effort to create emergency clinical records after Hurricane Katrina. MEDecision President John Capobianco explained to FierceHealthcare at HIMSS that while less than 20 percent of providers currently use EMRs, their technology can mine claims in real time to create basic records for emergency room care, or to support …

WebMD's Marty Wygod is featured in a New York Times article discussing new services that will allow employees in employer-sponsored plans to monitor their health benefits and activities. WebMD has already been running the service for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and will be hosting consumer sites and member data on an ASP basis for health plans and employers. Meanwhile, parent company Emdeon appears to be selling off its main parts, the practice management division and the …

Subimo is a consumer health information tools company formed by several veterans of Sachs Group in the early days of the dot-com bust. It provides a series of health information modules for consumers. These are now used by many Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, including an expansion announced this week with BCBS of Florida, other insurers and some banks. Their core ability is to take data sources, such as quality metrics and cost information about plans, providers and treatments, and …

In a web exclusive for Health Affairs, Tennessee Blue Cross Blue Shield President Vicky Gregg discusses the lessons of her non-profit's continued financial success and the meltdown of the TennCare experiment. The CEO's interview with economist James Robinson touches on two key healthcare stories: the controversy over the profitability of non-profits and the issue of Medicaid reform.

On pricing: "There was a considerable pushback to the …

Health insurer WellPoint is in talks to acquire New York-based WellChoice, the parent of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, according to media reports. A deal has not yet been reached, but the terms of the transaction are said to be in the neighborhood of $6.5 billion in cash and stock. Industry analysts see the offer as a response to UnitedHealth Group's $8.14 billion acquisition of PacifiCare this summer. The deal would give WellPoint a strong presence on the east coast and put the company …

For many years health insurers have struggled (or refused) to represent the information they have about their members back in useful form to their members. In an era of online banking and airline reservations systems, health plans have been badly behind. Finally this trend may be changing, with WebMD Health, on an ASP basis, leading the provision of personal health records, personalized health information and tools and benefit information directly linked to members claims and service …

A web portal set up by the big three auto makers is now offering healthcare. Covisint, which was formed by DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors to establish a web portal for their suppliers, said yesterday that it has signed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as its first healthcare customer. CompuWare acquired the joint project in 2004 from the automakers for an undisclosed sum. The Michigan healthcare market is historically closely watched by analysts. GM alone has …

Health insurance giant WellPoint said its second-quarter profit was up sharply, news which comes as little surprise. The company said net income for the quarter was $559.4 million, an increase which reflects the company's merger with Anthem late last year. The results include a $135 million charge WellPoint took earlier this month as it settled a class-action suit with doctors alleging the company systematically underpaid them. As of June, the Indianapolis-based Blue Cross Blue …

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee said it has signed a deal with Cerner which will see the company develop a database of patient medical records for its TennCare members. BCBS says it will add all of its commercial insurance and Medicaid patients later this year, putting about 2.8 million people in the system, making it the largest in the US. The company also said it is creating a subsidiary to market the system to plans in other states, yet another indication that Cerner may be the company to watch in healthcare.

- see this story from the Nashville Business Journal