Topic:

Quality Improvement & Outcomes

Latest Headlines

Latest Headlines

Texas Blues forms ACO focused on IT, data sharing

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas has formed one of the largest accountable care organizations in the country, partnering with healthcare provider Texas Health Resources to improve quality and decrease costs.

UnitedHealth, Mayo combine data to research medical treatments

UnitedHealth and Mayo Clinic have agreed under a new partnership to combine their data for more than 110 million patients to help research methods to improve healthcare while lowering costs.

Public contests: Boost perception, payer innovation

Neither one person nor one company can do it all. That's a major life lesson we adults benefit from once truly learned. And health insurers are embracing the philosophy as they attempt to lower...

Insurers' coverage of breast pumps, lactation services varies

Amid all the talk about the reform law's insurance implications is a little known provision that requires a new benefit for insurers to cover--breast pumps and lactation consultant visits--that went into effect Jan. 1.

UnitedHealth offers $60K for chronic care technologies

UnitedHealth has launched a new contest that seeks ideas on how technologies can help improve treatment of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Exclusive: Post-discharge calls help Cigna lower readmissions

Hospital readmissions represent a huge portion of unnecessary--and preventable--healthcare costs, accounting for 30 percent of total inpatient costs among commercial health insurance members. With...

We need comprehensive mental health coverage, stat

I've had mental health coverage on the brain ever since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn. last month. When I first heard about the horrific tragedy, I almost immediately wondered...

Hot topics in 2012: ACOs, quality improvement, consumer engagement

For your reading pleasure, we have gathered the most read FierceHealthPayer stories of 2012. It's a definitive victory for accountable care organizations.

WellPoint-owned clinics can help reduce hospital readmissions

To help reduce alarmingly high hospital readmission rate throughout the country insurers, including WellPoint, have begun operating their own doctor offices and clinics--the theory is that if insurers can directly provide care for their own members, they could decrease unnecessary readmissions.

Blues plan revamps program after $300K fraud

After learning of this healthcare fraud scheme, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City has redesigned its wellness program so that the results can be more easily verified.