Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

For a company that promises to “inform” consumers about the law, the letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota is awfully vague.

Check out this study from the Healthcare Performance Management Institute, a business-backed think tank that promotes self-insurance among employers. The survey claims that insurance companies are refusing to provide employers with detailed data about employee claims, citing privacy concerns. The result is that employers do not have the data that would [...]

The new health insurance reform law will generally require health plans to pay out at least 80 or 85 percent of premiums in medical expenses, depending on whether they are selling to individuals/small groups or to large groups. Intuitively it makes sense that purchasers would want the medical loss ratio to [...]

One of Ohio’s biggest health insurance companies is trying to convince doctors to forego their old-fashioned prescription pads more often.Cleveland-based Medical Mutual of Ohio is teaming up with its pharmacy benefits manager, Medco Health Solutions, for a pilot program that gives select doctors financial incentives to prescribe medications electronically.Medical Mutual is signing up 250 of [...]

An Ohio legislative proposal would create a statewide database of life insurance policies designed to help beneficiaries obtain unclaimed proceeds.The information in the database would be made available only when a policyholder dies and only to people specifically listed in the policyholder’s will, according to proposal, House Bill 476.Life insurance companies doing business in Ohio [...]

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) Friday offered a spirited defense of the newly minted health care law, arguing the reforms will ultimately save money by focusing on preventive programs like physical education and nutrition.In remarks at a forum sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, Franken also accused critics of distorting the law [...]

A major criticism leveled at the health reform law is that it doesn’t do enough to control costs. Yet experience with a similar breed of health reform in Massachusetts indicates that the cost control issue will come to the fore sooner rather than later. Four news stories from the past few [...]

Remember the 1980s and early 90s? That’s when HMOs successfully slowed or even reversed health care spending increases with tools such as prior authorization, gatekeepers, restrictive drug formularies, narrow networks and capitation. Employers were happy to save money and also didn’t mind that the HMOs took the blame when patients were [...]

Increase patients’ copayments for doctor visits, the theory goes, and you’ll see lower health costs since people won’t go to the doctor for minor ailments. Alas, that theory’s wrong.

Over the last six years, uncompensated care has risen by 114 percent, according to the Minnesota Hospital Association. Uncompensated care is made up of charity care and “bad debt” from care that patients never pay for. In 2008, Minnesota hospitals gave away $268 million in uncompensated care.