A new business consortium called the Partnership for Value-Driven Health Care recently released an employer guide for promoting “value-driven” health care. The guide encourages employers to take certain steps to promote the use of health information technology. It also promotes quality and price transparency and other incentives for quality and efficiency in health care. The Business Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs, established the consortium. The guide is available at www.leapfroggroup.org/news/leapfrog_news/Purchaser_Guide.
Coventry Health Care agreed to buy Texas-based Concentra’s workers compensation managed-care services business for $387.5 million in cash. It includes Addison, Concentra’s workers' compensation preferred provider organization, provider bill review, pharmacy benefits management, case management, and independent medical examination business. Concentra is a privately-owned health care service provider. Coventry is a national managed health care company based out of Bethesda, MD that operates health plans, insurance companies and workers compensation service entities. www.coventryhealth.com
Florida Capital Bank has partnered with ConnectYourCare, a consumer-directed health care (CDH) platform provider, to launch an integrated CDH platform for administering HSAs, HRAs and FSAs. The platform solution, named the Florida Capital CDH Solution, complements Florida Capital’s portfolio of financial services and is available to all size employers, health plans and third-party administrators. It includes financial claims adjudication, a multi-purse health care payment card, integrated account management, and a single sign-on portal for access to health care account management, online healthcare tools, and HSA investment options. www.flcb.com, www.connectyourcare.com
KMG America Corporation introduced a program to assist stop loss clients of Kanawha Insurance Company with managing their financial health care risk when factors like experimental treatments, rare diagnoses or unusually large claims are a consideration. The program, called MOMM, which stands for maximized outcome medical management, includes some services free of charge, such as clinical and financial consultation, and rewards programs with preferred vendor partners. MOMM covers such treatment/cost-intensive areas as transplants, case management, disease management, cost negotiation and maternity management, with special emphasis on neonatology. MOMM also includes a predictive modeling rewards program to analyze claims data, thereby identifying a range of potential claim issues in order to allow for more timely and effective case management interventions. Employers are offered financial incentives to generate trials. Kanawha Insurance is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KMG America. momm[at]kmgamerica.com
Motivano entered into an agreement with Competitive Health to offer consumer-driven health care point of service repricing and payment solutions for their customers. Competitive Health was the first company to provide real-time, automated patient payment information and PPO network information. Motivano links the provider’s office with a convenient, universally available telephonic and Internet repricing system combined with a pre-paid VISA health care payment card. This payment system enables providers to determine the patient’s eligibility and financial responsibility, and electronically delivers an explanation of review to both the patient and provider, all at the time of service. By joining forces with Motivano, a technology company providing electronic payment solutions for employee benefits and health care, Competitive Health will be able to jointly serve over 50 health plans, 140 third-party administrators and more than 5,000 corporations. www.motivano.com, www.competitivehealth.com
Workscape announced that it is under agreement with WebMD to provide its benefits administration customers with WebMD’s suite of online health and benefit management tools. Its clients’ employees will connect, in a secure and personalized way, to WebMD’s decision-support tools and resources through the same interface they already use to make benefits choices. When employees participate in “rewardable” activities, such as the completion of a health risk assessment, they will receive awards real-time in conjunction with their benefits enrollment. Both offerings share a common technology platform, can be readily integrated with existing IT investments, serve millions of employees, and are scalable and configurable to meet the distinct requirements of organizations ranging from 2,000 to 400,000 employees. Workscape is an international company based in Marlborough, MA. www.workscape.com
HSA for America has partnered with MedBillManager to offer MedBillManager’s Medical Bill Tracker Web services for all of HSA for America’s clients. Medical Bill Tracker is an internet-based tool that consumers can use to organize, reconcile and compare costs for all of their family’s medical bills, payments, and insurance statements any time and on any computer. HSA for America has launched Medical Bill Tracker so customers can combine it with its HSA-qualified health insurance plans. Medical Bill Tracker guides users in determining various options available to themselves as a health care consumer and ensures that they take full advantage of their available benefits. HSA for America is a nationwide brokerage firm specializing in individual and family health insurance plans that are qualified to work with health savings accounts. MedBillManager, a Nashville-based company, provides medical bill management services. www.health--savings--accounts.com