Managed Healthcare back issues from September 1999:
Lessons in utilizing primary car physicians
Sep 01, 1999; ... A proper outcome is less expensive than redundant diagnoses and drug use. Primary care doctors: For patients who must enter their health plan through a gatekeeper to get to a specialist, a necessary and sometimes time-consuming cog blocking the speedy delivery of care. For managed care ...
HMO patients in the ER: Not an urgent issue yet
Sep 01, 1999; ... Sachs Group study shows most ER visits could have been handled by PCP NATioNAL REPoRT-On the early morning of January 11, 1998, Jo Anne Hamilton was awakened with an extreme headache. "I get migraines, but I had never had one like this," says Hamilton, age 41. "When I stood up, ...
Providers blast managed care plans in survey
Sep 01, 1999; ... Insurers, plans call information "misinterpreted" and claim denial rates are low WASHINGTON, D. C.-Physicians are very unhappy about health plan coverage denials, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Researchers at Kaiser and the Harvard School of ...
A 'taxing' route to expand healthcare coverage?
Sep 01, 1999; ... Tax cut compromise might be combined with Medicare drug benefit, patients' rights With managed care reform legislation in limbo and the patients' bill of rights on hold, members of Congress have been looking for other routes to achieve health policy changes. One option is to use the tax ...
Managed care's keenest thinkers
Sep 01, 1999; ... A look at experts' expectations, and what you must do to succeed deep thought abounds in managed care. From the old-guard theory to modern concepts, it seems that economists, academicians, consultants and authors supply us with insight on almost a daily basis. What does it all mean for ...
The shocking truth of tapping behavioral health into medical services
Sep 01, 1999; ... Identifying mental illness in primary care settings can bring dollars to an MCO's bottom line Healthcare costs are rising again, at levels reminiscent of those of the late 1980s. When costs rose sharply 10 years ago, it precipitated sharp growth in managed care. The question many payers ...
Drug therapy eases the pain of migraine management
Sep 01, 1999; ... Key studies show proper pharmaceutical use reduces total costs and increases satisfaction Migraines affect more than 23 million Americans and exact a toll of more than $5 billion in lost productivity annually, says the National Consumers League, but it still has not reached the radar ...
Putting together painless DM approaches for patients
Sep 01, 1999; ... Multidisciplinary, holistic approaches take the lead in pain management at health plans When a patient in the Mid-Atlantic Division of Kaiser Permanente visits her primary care physician for chronic back pain, that is only the beginning of treatment for what has become one of the most ...
Is consolidation kids stuff for children's hospitals?
Sep 01, 1999; ... Pediatric facilities can look to regional delivery or high-volume care for opportunities As many experts predicted, the free-standing, independent hospital is becoming increasingly scarce. A variety of market forces have promoted unprecedented consolidation activity among full-service ...
Up in smoke
Sep 01, 1999; ... Access to support allows two plans to cut plan-registered smokers by more than 30% Not even a puff in the last 30 days. That's how Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Oregon defines having quit smoking, and about 1,300 of its members did so last year. The plan made its ...
Doublespeak can't save Aetna from lawsuit
Sep 01, 1999; ... Jury's ruling of `breached fiduciary duty' costs HMO more than $120 million This summer has added heat to the hottest legal verdict of recent vintage, Goodrich v Aetna US Healthcare.' It was the largest legal verdict ever awarded against a managed care organization was so rendered. It ...
Feds prescribe regs for online pharmacies
Sep 01, 1999; ... PBMs flex their muscles, daunting the high hopes of legitimate online pharmacies The mad rush to cash in on the online pharmacy phenomenon has hit some major stumbling blocks. On July 30, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee heard ...