health plans

Health Plans Shift Pharmacy Costs onto Vulnerable Patients

People with chronic diseases often have no choice but to begin paying hundreds more per month
March 19, 2012 – Industry insiders and patients are raising alarm about what they’re calling an insidious trend in the price of life-saving pharmaceuticals by insurance companies, which began shifting, they say, an unprecedented burden of drug costs onto people with chronic diseases. Read More >>

Public Employees’ Benefit Board Plans For Big Budget Hole

Worst-case scenario is “wholesale slaughter,” says board member Diane Lovell
March 25, 2011--The Public Employees’ Benefit Board (PEBB) agreed last week to implement benefit cuts and surcharges to its members that will help it close a looming budget gap somewhere between $20.5 million and $104.5 million. Read More >>

CareOregon Considers Federal Co-op

The Oregon Health Plan insurer testified in Washington DC on February 7, but won't reveal testimony
February 21, 2011 -- The Federal Co-op Program Advisory Board met a second time February 7 – and has issued a timeline for implementation of the co-op program, as well as a request for comment. Read More >>

Feds Start Preparing for Co-Op Health Plans

There’s been $6 billion allocated to jump start such plans that becomes available in 2014
January 26, 2011 -- A national public option may have died, but before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act last March, lawmakers included a provision that calls for consumer-operated healthcare plans – known as co-operatives. Read More >>

Employers Follow Kitzhaber on Value-Based Design

The Oregon Coalition of Health Care Purchasers is working with 14 employers to help them coordinate and align their benefit structure
October 26, 2010 -- As they grapple with rising healthcare costs, employers appear eager to focus on what’s becoming known as value-based benefit designs, a concept that gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber has been touting. Read More >>

LifeWise Suspends Sale of Individual Policies

The health insurer disagrees with the Oregon Insurance Division about when federal reforms come into effect
October 21, 2010 -- At the direction of the Oregon Insurance Division, LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon has temporarily suspended sales of new individual policies. Read More >>

Medicare Advantage Changes Strike Rural Oregon Hardest

Private Medicare plans are beginning a precipitous withdrawal from the state of Oregon
October 14, 2010 -- The 25,000 Oregonians forced to change health coverage in coming months because their Medicare Advantage plans are going away likely represent just the tip of the iceberg. Read More >>

High Risk Pool Takes Over Where Regence Left Off

The board administering the program will ask the 2011 Legislature for permission to cover all children regardless of their health status
October 13, 2010 -- Now that Regence BlueCross BlueShield and HealthNet decided they won’t provide insurance to children, the state's high risk pool has sprung into action. Read More >>

Coordination Marks Unprecedented Pilot

Program launched by 19 Oregon health organizations to lower healthcare premiums, increase quality of care for Oregonians with chronic conditions
August 31, 2010 – Fourteen medical groups, five health plans and four of the State’s purchasing groups in Oregon have launched an unprecedented pilot program designed to improve care and reduce costs for thousands of patients across the state. Read More >>
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