Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is offering a low-cost health plan in counties in south and central Florida. The program, BlueSelect, is designed for uninsured workers or those at risk of becoming uninsured. It was tested on a pilot basis in the Tampa area earlier this year and is now being introduced in Broward, Charlotte, Hernando, Pasco, and Polk counties.
The Shriners organization has "overwhelmingly" rejected a recommendation by its corporate board to close the Shriners Hospital for Children in Erie, PA, and five other hospitals, according to Erie Shriners spokesman Bob Howden. The Shriners' corporate board had recommended the closures after the national economic downturn cut into the endowment that helps fund the hospitals. But the Shriners delegates have to approve any decision to close a hospital and, while another vote could come up later this week, Howden described that possibility as "very remote."
As attacks mounted over proposed rate increases by Anthem Blue Cross, Connecticut regulators said they will cut increases that would have raised premiums as much as 32% on individual policies. The Connecticut Insurance Department said that Commissioner Thomas R. Sullivan agreed the rate request is too high and expects to approve something less on certain policies.
David Popen, a senior vice president and chief development officer for Gallatin, TN-based Sumner Regional Health Systems, will resign. The hospital system won't fill his job, spokeswoman Angela Alexander said. Popen's departure comes less than a month after former hospital system CEO Bill Sugg's June 12 resignation.
California regulators have shut down a labor union health insurance scheme that put hundreds of consumers at risk of losing coverage. The Department of Managed Health Care said that it had obtained an order from an administrative judge barring Raymond and Jean Palombo of Riverside from selling health maintenance organization and preferred provider organization policies in California. The department contended that the Palombos conspired with a union to collect premiums from members but then failed to pay the premiums in full to Kaiser Permanente, the contracted health plan. That put nearly 500 people in jeopardy of losing their health coverage.
The Journal of the American Medical Association backed off a policy ordering public silence from anyone filing a complaint about study authors' possible undisclosed financial conflicts until a probe is complete. In March, the editors of JAMA published an online editorial in which they said anyone filing a complaint about unreported conflicts of interest would "be specifically informed that he/she should not reveal this information to third parties or the media while the investigation is underway."