Blue Cross of Minnesota dropping its contract with Healthways

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is dropping a service that provided consumers with telephone advice about ongoing health conditions, but will launch its own, more elaborate program in 2009. Healthways, a Tennessee-based medical outsourcing company, had been providing the service to Blue Cross under a 2001 contract. Blue Cross plans to now build its own internal organization to handle the telephone disease management services as well as new phone services aimed at people who are medically at risk.