Tennessee state officials have announced moderate expansion of the CoverTN program, initially created in an attempt to make healthcare coverage more accessible to people who live on limited income working for small businesses. The CoverTN plan started with eligibility requirements that applied to businesses with only 25 or fewer employees and that half of those employees had to make less than $41,000. Those standards have been expanded and is now open to businesses with up to 50 employees and half of those employees must make less than $43,000 a year. People must work an average of at least 20 hours a week at the job and have not had health coverage stopped in the last six months.
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday downgraded UnitedHealth Group Inc. default rating to 'A' from 'A+' and lowered the outstanding senior unsecured debt rating to 'A-' from 'A', all of which are upper medium grade ratings. Fitch cited a review showing the healthcare services company will be more leveraged than previously anticipated, and said the rating changes take into account the possible $1.3 billion in fines UnitedHealth is facing for alleged state law violations in California.
In an ambitious effort to shore up U.S. primary-care medicine, a coalition including General Electric Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. is launching an initiative to pay doctors hefty bonuses for creating "medical homes" for patients. The initiative is the latest and perhaps most far-reaching effort by Bridges to Excellence, a program backed by big employers and health plans to provide physicians with financial incentives for taking better care of patients. Last year, the program paid out roughly $10 million in bonuses to doctors in the 18 states where it is active.
The demise of California's attempt at comprehensive healthcare reform this week means that advocates of overhauling the healthcare system will turn their focus back to Washington as an increasingly tough budget climate raises new questions about whether states can go it alone.
Shares of wellness program provider Healthways Inc. plunged today after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said the first phase of a pilot wellness program will end this year, as scheduled, but didn't indicate whether a Phase II expansion is in the cards. The Nashville-based company's shares fell $10.52, or 16 percent, to $55.85 in composite trading for the biggest decline since June 21, 2002.
With its major sources of funding flattening out, the University of Cincinnati plans to restructure its healthcare and medical operations and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for it. University Hospital, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and UC Physicians are finalizing a strategic plan to target four areas for clinical investment: cancer, neuroscience, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders including diabetes and obesity. The plan already is a focus of UC's $800 million capital campaign and critical to the university's future. The Academic Health Center, which includes the colleges of Medicine, Allied Health Sciences, Nursing and Pharmacy, University Hospital and several other parts, supports a budget of nearly $500 million.