Humana Inc. has announced it expects to lose nearly 10% of its Medicare drug-plan enrollees at the start of next year because it bid premiums too high to win an allotment of low-income, government-assigned members. Humana shares fell nearly 5% to $41.75 in after-hours trading after it announced it would lose all of its 308,000 "dual-eligible" Medicare members. Such members are a source of instant market share for many of the companies that sell and administer the benefit.
Kokomo, IN-based Howard Regional Health System says it has cut the equivalent of 75 full-time jobs due to a decline in patients. Howard Regional officials said that it has cut a total of 95 positions since mid-July and that since last October it's left more 180 positions vacant through attrition. CEO James P. Alender said that the drop in patients had been expected, but the decline has been faster than the employee attrition rate.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have launched
a national campaign to teach parents how to protect kids from skin infections caused by MRSA. The National MRSA Education Initiative highlights specific measures parents can take to protect themselves and their families from MRSA skin infections. The campaign will include Web sites, fact sheets, brochures, posters, radio and print public service announcements, mom blogging sites, Web banners, and mainstream media interviews.
Attending medical schools with high levels of racial and ethnic diversity may better prepare white medical students to care for minority patients, according to a study that analyzed data from a survey of 20,112 graduating medical students from 118 medical schools. The study found that white students at medical schools with the highest quintile for student body racial and ethnic diversity, measured by the proportion of underrepresented minority students, were 33% more likely to rate themselves as highly prepared to care for minority patients than white students at medical schools in the lowest diversity quintile.
Just 2% of nearly 1,200 fourth-year students say they plan to work in primary care internal medicine, according to results of a new survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a similar survey in 1990, the figure was 9%.
The results suggest more medical students, many of them saddled with debt, are opting for more lucrative specialties.
Revolution Health Network, the online healthcare business launched by former AOL chairman Steve Case, is in discussions to merge with Everyday Health. Sources familiar with the discussions said that the merger was still in the negotiation stage, but if approved the merger would join two of the three most-visited online health information networks. Everyday Health is owned by New York-based Waterfront Media and provides online health and wellness information.