No outsourcing of health insurance claims to India, states Government | Bermuda NEWS

No outsourcing of health insurance claims to India, states Government Bermuda NEWS

FutureCare and HIP insurance claims are not outsourced to India, the Ministry of Health has stated.
Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson told the House of Assembly that claims were being sent to the Asian nation for processing.

During the Health Budget debate last week, the Opposition MP said it was a sad day if Government couldn’t find Bermudians to adjust claims.
She said: “It’s a nightmare to call for a claim and go through India. It’s a nightmare and it needs to be remedied.”

A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said this week that claims were not processed in India, however a company based in the country has been contracted to do back-office support and maintenance for an IT application.

“Contrary to Mrs Jackson’s comments in the House of Assembly, the public has no contact with Apollo staff whatsoever.

“The public only interacts with HID [Health Insurance Department] staff in Bermuda, except for overseas claims where they deal directly with the Canadian Medical Network (CMN).

“CMN manages overseas claims for Argus, [Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association] LCCA and [the Government Employment Health Insurance scheme] GEHI in addition to HID’s overseas claims. All this information has been made available since 2008.”

Sanford Health Inks Deal With Minnesota’s NCHS

Sanford Health Inks Deal With Minnesota’s NCHS

North Country Health Services in Bemidji, MN, and Dakotas-based Sanford Health have signed an affiliation agreement that will create Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota on March 1. As part of the affiliation, Sanford will invest $70 million in resources over the next ten years and will immediately make a $5 million gift to the NCHS Foundation, the two healthcare systems said Friday in a joint announcement.
NCHS and Sanford Bemidji Clinic said the affiliation is the "first step" in the integration of the two Bemidji-based organizations to provide coordinated care for patients close to home. Plans are underway to expand service lines for heart, cancer, orthopedics & sports medicine, women's health, and research and education. The affiliation is also expected to help with clinician recruiting.

In fact, 58% of recently polled rural health leaders named cardiology and oncology as their top targets for service line expansion.

"A yearlong evaluation process revealed many ways for us to better serve the region together as an integrated provider," said Kelby Krabbenhoft, CEO of Sanford Health. "We will combine the resources of a strong regional healthcare institution and a multi-specialty physician clinic, together with the Sanford Health System, to offer more primary and specialty care services and new programs in research and education. Our goals were the same -- to make Bemidji a regional referral center in northern Minnesota and this merger will enable us to do so."

Trinity Health to buy Chicago's Loyola Health System | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Trinity Health to buy Chicago's Loyola Health System Detroit Free Press freep.com

The Novi-based Trinity Health System, one of the nation’s largest Catholic health care systems, is buying the Loyola University Health System of Chicago and consolidating research with the affiliated Loyola University Chicago, it was announced today.

This is the first foray into Illinois by Trinity Health. While the purchase has no direct impact on Trinity’s Michigan operations, it will help provide future stability for Loyola’s medical and nursing schools, said Steve Shivinsky, vice president for corporate communications at Trinity, which owns 15 Michigan hospitals, 9 nursing homes, four hospices, 19 senior living communities and 40 subsidized health clinics in Michigan. It employs 27,500 people at its Michigan operations.

The three systems announced today they had signed a letter of intent to consolidate operations. Shivinsky said they hope to complete the deal by June 30.

Merger to create prison health giant

Merger to create prison health giant

Valitás Health Services Inc., a Creve Coeur-based provider of health care in prisons and jails, announced Thursday its plan to acquire Tennessee-based America Service Group Inc., another leading provider of prison health services.

The combined company will have about 11,000 employees and serve more than 400 correctional facilities in 31 states, with revenue estimated this year of about $1.4 billion, company officials said. That makes it the largest U.S. contractor of health services in jails and prisons.

"We're doing this to take advantage of the growth opportunities that are available in the marketplace and to blend the companies and take advantage of their relative strengths," said Dick Miles, Valitás' chairman and chief executive. "We think that a lot of states are going to be considering outsourcing correctional health care to companies like ours as a way to address both financial and quality issues."

Today, less than half the nation's correctional health care has been outsourced.

Valitás will acquire America Service Group for $26 per share, or about $250 million. The transaction is subject to antitrust review by the Justice Department and the approval of America Service Group shareholders.

Minnesota Health IT firm hires its first chief medical officer

Minnesota Health IT firm hires its first chief medical officer

Minnesota Health IT firm hires its first chief medical officer
Health IT firm RedBrick Health has hired its first chief medical officer in response to a rapid growth in business,a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based software firm that promotes wellness has named Jeff Dobro to the newly created position of CMO. Under Dobro’s leadership, the company’s clinical side — consulting,clinical product development and clinical program oversight — will be consolidated.

Previously, Dobro was senior consultant and eastern region practice leader in Towers Watson’s Health Management practice. He was also a financial analyst covering the healthcare industry for five years prior to that. Other roles include principal at Creative Medical Management, chief medical officer at Telesis Medical Management and regional chief medical officer at New York Life.

GlobeSt.com - Mega-Deals Make a Comeback - Daily News Article

GlobeSt.com - Mega-Deals Make a Comeback - Daily News Article

NEW YORK CITY-To have three multi-billion-dollar commercial real estate deals announced in a single day is something one might have expected in 2006 or 2007, not amid a post-downturn recovery. Yet the start of this week brought just a hat trick: Ventas’ $7.4-billion acquisition of Nationwide Health Properties, a $2.4-billion buy of most of the real estate assets of Genesis HealthCare by Health Care REIT and the Blackstone Group’s deal for 588 Centro Properties Group malls in the US for $9.4 billion.

“It’s pretty rare to see these types of deals this early in the cycle,” Real Capital Analytics’ Dan Fasulo tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re only at the beginning of a recovery. Usually, you see the $10-billion deals at the end of an up cycle.” That we’ve seen such mega-deals at this stage is “a great signal of how much liquidity exists on both the equity and debt sides to allow these transactions to take place,” says Fasulo, managing director of RCA.

Such deals might not have happened in 2010, says Fasulo. “Last year, everybody was testing the waters,” he says. “Now we’re at the point where there’s a plethora of institutional investors sitting on piles of capital that need to be put to work.” The result, he adds, will be more jumbo-sized deals where these came from as 2011 progresses.

NEHTA inks e-health authentication deal > PKI > Access Control > News > SC Magazine Australia/NZ

NEHTA inks e-health authentication deal > PKI > Access Control > News > SC Magazine Australia/NZ

Track record wins IBM a $23.6 million deal.

The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) has selected IBM to develop and implement Australia's ehealth authentication system.

The $23.6 million deal was inked yesterday following an open tender process that commenced last September.

IBM was to build the National Authentication Service for Health (NASH), which would use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), smartcards and readers to control access to sensitive healthcare data.

NASH would allow authenticated healthcare organisations and personnel to exchange information such as referrals, prescriptions, and patients' personally controlled ehealth records (PCEHR).

It would be used by about 600,000 healthcare providers nationwide, and adhere to the National e-Authentication Framework, Gatekeeper PKI Framework and National Smartcard Framework.

Blue Cross CEO got $8.6m in exit deal - The Boston Globe

Blue Cross CEO got $8.6m in exit deal - The Boston Globe

FORMER CEO OF BLUE CROSS“The payment I got was consistent with my contract — no more, no less,” said Cleve L. Killingsworth of his severance package.

Cleve L. Killingsworth, who abruptly resigned last March as chief executive of the nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, collected $8.6 million in compensation from the state’s largest health insurer in 2010.

The rich package — which included $1.4 million in severance pay, with more money to follow — was detailed in a Blue Cross filing with the state Division of Insurance yesterday. It touched off a volley of criticism at a time when government and business officials, including Blue Cross’s leaders, have been struggling to restrain health care costs.

Indian ITeS Companies Sniff Opportunities as U.S. Govt Cuts Budget - si Team - SiliconIndia Magazine

Indian ITeS Companies Sniff Opportunities as U.S. Govt Cuts Budget - si Team - SiliconIndia Magazine

Indian IT Service firms might just be in for a merry ride as the U.S. government has decided to cut more than $61 billion from their current spending levels. This will prove to be a blessing for the service firms who are pushing hard to be a part of the $100-billion U.S. government outsourcing market. More government sector contracts will be outsourced to Indian firms as the U.S. states are looking at gaining greater efficiencies by reducing costs. Healthcare service companies are largely to gain, as the U.S. government has mandated that all healthcare records needs to be archived digitally. Companies like TCS and Wipro, who have a nine year $407-million outsourcing contract from the state of Missouri for delivering healthcare-related IT services, might be the companies bagging the most number of contracts. Other areas that the companies could look forward to are the departments of justice, transportation, homeland security, health and human services, commerce, energy, agriculture, and treasury. However, experts are not very optimistic of Indian firms getting these new government contracts as outsourcing is a sensitive subject for the U.S. government due to the rise in unemployment rate. The political cost for the government cutting jobs can be catastrophic. Eventhough the cut in spending in the proposed budget is opening way for outsourcing, the governments will try everything in their power to avoid this and to make sure most of the work is done onshore thus reducing the political damage.

ADP Acquires Cloud-based EHR Provider

ADP Acquires Cloud-based EHR Provider