Florida Health Care Plan Inc. is being sold to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida for $85 million. Following the sale, Florida Health Care will continue present operations and organization as a community-based, locally managed health plan available to Volusia and Flagler County residents. Its 57,000 members will have immediate access to an expanded statewide and nationwide network of Blue Cross services and healthcare providers.
Pfizer Inc. has resumed television ads for the cholesterol pill Lipitor, six months after stopping commercials with artificial-heart inventor Robert Jarvik that led to a congressional investigation. In the new ads, the endorser is a talent agent from the San Francisco area who tells viewers he started taking Pfizer's Lipitor after surviving a heart attack. Pfizer had run frequent TV ads from late 2006 through February in which Jarvik endorsed Lipitor. While he holds a medical degree, Jarvik never completed licensing requirements to practice medicine.
The Woodbury, MN, City Council has voted to approve plans to add 126 parking spaces at Woodwinds Health Campus. That's the first step in an envisioned expansion that someday could include three medical office buildings and dramatic improvements for the only hospital in Woodbury. The hospital is running out of parking because of high demand in orthopedic and maternity services and because of recent room additions, said hospital officials.
Christiana Care Health System has announced it will build a new medical center to serve the aging population north of Wilmington, DE, and in communities over the state line in Pennsylvania. The 100,000 square foot facility will include a satellite branch of Christiana's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Stanton. Christiana officials deny the project is an attempt to block the possible expansion into the area by Fox Chase Cancer Center.
Like many other companies, Philadelphia-based Cardone Industries Inc. was struggling with the cost of its workers' healthcare.
Many of its 4,000 employees lacked primary-care doctors. Rather than deal with problems early, they'd wait until they were really sick, then head for emergency rooms. In addition, a small but growing number of workers was turning down the company's health insurance plan because it was too expensive. To help, Cardone and Holy Redeemer Health System broke ground on a 2,500-square-foot health center for Cardone employees and their families that will be staffed by Holy Redeemer doctors. Workers who use the center will have a lower insurance co-payment and, those who sign up for Cardone's new Exclusive Provider Organization will pay less for their insurance.
At WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurer, Chief Executive Angela Braly is attempting to raise premiums enough to placate investors but not so much as to send customers fleeing elsewhere. WellPoint began boosting premiums after a profit warning in March. In the first six months of the year, WellPoint lost 189,000 members in the plans that it insures and the company projects an additional overall 150,000-member decline by December. The problem of how to reassure investors that profit will be maintained without losing business is confronting the entire health-insurance industry.