Health insurer WellPoint has reportedly put its pharmacy benefits management business up for sale. Possible bidders include Medco, CVS Caremark, and Express Scripts, and the sale price is expected to total between $1 billion to $5 billion. Insurers with in-house PBMs say they are core to offering comprehensive packages to clients who want drug coverage.
San Francisco's universal healthcare program withstood a legal challenge from restaurant owners, setting up the possibility for a showdown before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a split decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which challenged the program's employer-spending requirement. Under San Francisco's plan, businesses with 20 workers or more must offer health coverage in one of three ways: sign up for private insurance, pay the city for coverage at a network of city and private facilities, or set up healthcare accounts.
Groups pushing for changes in healthcare rallied and lobbied at the state Capitol on Monday. One measure they're backing would expand Medicaid by imposing new fees on hospitals, money they say would be used to get federal matching dollars for a total of $1.2 billion a year. Backers say it could provide health coverage to about 100,000 people and stop hospitals from having to pass along the cost of caring for the uninsured to people who have health insurance.
Most doctors are fairly ignorant about how to act toward patients when they run out of treatments, suggests a study. Often, once doctors refer a patient to hospice care, they end all contact, leaving patients and their families feeling abandoned, says lead author Anthony Back, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington.
In his column for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik says that while the insurance industry claims to have had a change of heart on healthcare reform, its position hasn't changed at all.
At a time many see as the best opportunity in 15 years for a comprehensive healthcare overhaul, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has stepped into an unexpected leadership void. The careful Montanan, known for irritating the left wing of his party by compromising with the GOP on a range of matters, including the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, has suddenly become a leading force behind healthcare legislation.
CVS Caremark Corp. said it is closing the door for the season on about 16% of its walk-in MinuteClinic locations. MinuteClinic, the largest operator of retail clinics in the U.S., is making the move "to align with consumer demand," said CVS Caremark spokeswoman Carolyn Castel. The walk-in clinics treat minor maladies and administer vaccinations.
Executive compensation is always a hot topic. And given the fact that we're in a recession, the salaries and bonuses that hospital CEOs earn will be even more heavily scrutinized. +
Kevin Clement on March 9 takes over as CEO of Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital. Clement most recently served as the top executive at the 103-bed Moberly Regional Medical Center in Moberly, MO. Both hospitals are affiliates of Community Health Systems of Franklin, TN, the country's largest publicly traded hospital operator. CHS took over the Siloam Springs hospital Feb. 1 as part of a lease-sale agreement expected to result in construction of a $40 million hospital by 2012.
The Carter Samuel Martin Children's Chair for Innovative Therapy was presented to Howard M. Katzenstein, MD, on March 3. Katzenstein is director of Clinical Research for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and director of the Innovative Therapy program with the Aflac Cancer Center of Children's. Katzenstein also is an associate professor of Pediatrics with Emory University.
