Category: Healthcare Finance News

BCBS Minnesota launches kidney disease care program with DaVita’s VillageHealth

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has become the latest insurer seeking to better manage the risk of patients afflicted with permanent kidney failure, with such patients now eligible to enroll in Medicare Advantage plans for the first time.

CDC and FDA pause Johnson & Johnson vaccine over rare blood clot concerns

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday announced they are pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to concerns of several rare blood clotting cases in individuals who have received the vaccine.

Microsoft doubles healthcare market with acquisition of Nuance

Microsoft is acquiring Nuance Communications in an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 billion, inclusive of Nuance’s net debt. 
 
The transaction is intended to close this year.
 
Nuance is a cloud and software provider of conversational AI and cloud…

onehome partnering with Devoted Health on post-acute home-based care for Medicare Advantage

Post-acute home-based care provider onehome is partnering with Medicare Advantage company Devoted Health to expand care to the latter’s members in Arizona, Ohio and San Antonio, Texas.
The goal of the partnership is to enhance care by enabling members …

CMS increases hospice payments by 2.3%

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a proposed rule that updates hospice base payments and the aggregate cap amount for 2022. 
As proposed, hospices would see a 2.3%, or $530 million increase in their payments for FY 2022. The pro…

CMS proposes changes to skilled nursing facility prospective payment system

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a proposed rule that would update Medicare payment policies and rates for skilled nursing facilities under the Skilled Nursing Facility prospective payment system for fiscal year 2022. 

Most consumers want to keep telehealth after the COVID-19 pandemic

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was more of a novelty than a necessity. The concept of touching base with a doctor remotely was promising, but there were hurdles.
Now, though, with many of those hurdles at least temporarily lifted — due to po…

Intermountain Healthcare enters partnership with the University of Utah on population health

In a new partnership with Intermountain Healthcare, the University of Utah will be offering a new population health program focused on preemptive care. 

Advocate Aurora Enterprises acquires Senior Helpers

Advocate Aurora Enterprises, Advocate Aurora Health’s new subsidiary, is expanding its suite of senior care services with the acquisition of in-home care company, Senior Helpers. 
Through its over 320 franchised and corporate-owned locations in the Uni…

Two vaccination sites close after adverse reactions to Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Americans are getting COVID-19 vaccinations at a steady clip, but national inoculation efforts hit a snag this week as two different vaccination sites, one in North Carolina and one in Colorado, shut down temporarily after an abnormal number of adverse…