Displaying items by tag: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
New collaborative senior care model cuts costs, improves outcomes
GRAND RAPIDS — The success of a collaboration that set out three years ago to improve care for seniors with an array of health problems shows what can happen when cooperation trumps competition.
Small business health insurance rates to increase by average of 4 percent in 2018
Health insurance rates for small businesses in Michigan will increase an average of 4 percent for 2018.
GR investors lead funding round for artificial intelligence-based wellness app
An Ann Arbor company that wants to take traditional workplace wellness to an entirely new level using artificial intelligence has drawn a large share of capital from Grand Rapids-based investors.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Practicality, not politics, needed to fix ACA
Dominick Pallone considers it a hopeful sign that the debate over health care in America seems to be moving beyond political rhetoric and ideology.
BCBS takes steps to respond to opioid abuse
Nearly one in five Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan members had a prescription for an opioid filled in 2015. The dispensing rate nationally was higher, at 21.4 percent. Between 2010 and 2016, the 36 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans across the U.S. recorded a 493-percent spike in enrollees diagnosed with a disorder associated with opioid use. Those statistics from the Chicago-based Blue Cross Blue Shield Association reflect the opioid epidemic in America that in 2016 resulted in more than 33,000 overdose deaths. MiBiz spoke with Jody Gembarski, a pharmacy manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan who oversees its controlled substance work group, to discuss the association’s analysis and the role the state’s largest health insurer has in responding to the epidemic.
Cost should take center stage in health care debate, executives say
Federal lawmakers need to focus on what’s driving health care costs in America that in turn contributes to the rising cost of health coverage.
Analysis finds escalating specialty drug costs more than offset savings from generics
The heightened use of cheaper generic drugs has not been enough to stem the rising costs of prescription medication for Americans.
Modern medicine or major hassle? Lawmakers again consider easing doctor certification mandates
What one Grand Rapids-area physician considers a form of “extortion,” others see as a necessary way to gauge how well doctors keep up with modern medicine.
MSU Federal Credit Union plans downtown Grand Rapids branch
The board of directors for MSU Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) today announced its plans to open a branch in downtown Grand Rapids later this year.
Telemed services surpass growth expectations
GRAND RAPIDS — A year ago, Joe Brennan felt excited when Spectrum Health’s MedNow recorded 50 patient visits a week as people started to use the telemedicine service.