50: The number of new medical centers Anthem is opening in partnership with CareMax, a senior healthcare provider focused in the Florida market. The medical centers will primarily be in areas where Anthem is focused on value-based care efforts, including Indiana, Texas, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Georgia, Connecticut, and Virginia.
Self Insured Strategy: Aetna is rolling out virtual primary care services to self-funded employers across the country. By partnering with Teladoc, the new Aetna Virtual Primary Care service will be available to members at no cost, and includes access to in-person visits if needed, including at CVS MinuteClinic and HealthHUB locations.
ReRun or New Episode? It may seem we’ve heard this one before. Regence’s Episodes of Care program, their first value-based arrangement that was launched a year and a half ago, is adding new providers and employers. Regence’s largest customer, the Washington State Health Care Authority will be part of the program, effective January 2022. The Episodes of Care program so far has driven 16% cost savings for orthopedic procedures and now covers other specialties including cardiac procedures, GI conditions, and maternity care.
Starting A Family: LabCorp is joining the digital health craze, having acquired a digital health platform that provides info and support to individuals looking to start a family. Ovia Health describes its services as helping "women plan for maternity and parenthood through a range of personalized clinical programs." The company's digital platform allows women to monitor symptoms, track potential health risks, and coordinate care with providers. The acquisition will allow LC to further develop new products and services around reproductive health conditions, in addition to the current specialty testing, including genetics, the lab giant currently offers.
Switching Alliance: BCBS of Massachusetts recently announced that it is moving from its current pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, to CVS beginning January 1, 2023. The new agreement is expected to generate cumulative pharmacy savings for Blue Cross customers of between 10%-15% over the course of the three-year contract.
Diabetes Grant: BCBS of Arizona is granting $400,000 to local organizations to help reverse the diabetes trend and its impact on the healthcare system. Arizona based nonprofits, academic institutions, and government entities can request up to $75,000 in funding to further their work related to prevention, treatment, and management of diabetes. These funds can also help these organizations further social determinants of health (SDoH) initiatives for those living with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, or gestational diabetes.
Breast Detection Boost: Fujifilm Medical and ScreenPoint Medical are partnering to offer providers an AI solution designed for early breast cancer detection, called Transpara, powered by Fusion AI for 2D and 3D mammography. Fujifilm announced that the new FDA cleared Transpara, coupled with ScreenPoint’s AI solution, will display breast screening findings at a doctor’s reading station or PACS system. This is expected to help improve reading accuracy, reduce reading time, and improve workflow. Early detection is crucial to reducing breast cancer mortality rates and this collaboration will offer customers the latest support tools to identify potential breast cancers earlier than before.
Fireside Chat: In case you missed, about a year ago we held a kind of fireside chat with payers and providers featuring stories about 6 patients facing immense behavioral health and psychosocial challenges, including a 28-year-old male with Heroin addiction, a mom of 6 whose youngest had lead poisoning, a 77-year-old widow with dementia and untreated anxiety, a 55-year-old Caucasian female, former athlete with schizophrenia and now alcohol addiction, a 60-year-old woman with major depression, and 20-year-old confronting PTSD. Their stories, the outcomes and how the health system is trying new models and payment reforms to save money, are discussed here in this 2-hour program.
Extra Point: If it wasn’t enough that in a period of 3 days I juggled two trips to help mom with her difficult transition into assisted living, met with the neurologist to review her scan showing significant memory loss from the last scan 10 years ago, made a 14 hour roundtrip drive to Indiana to move the kid into college and had an oil leak in my basement, my vet tells me the dog has a skin infection that requires URGENT attention and, to make matters worse, the market was all out of goldfish this morning. Not sure about you, but when it rains, it pours and if you’re like me there are a whole host of ways to manage the insanity. For me, it’s usually goldfish, a cape codder and season 3 of Schitt’s Creek.