Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
It’s official, United HealthGroup intends to acquire Pacificare, increasing their membership to 25.7 million and tripling their Medicare insured business. This will also strengthen UHG’s west coast operations, long a sore spot for the company. With the announcement came protests … Continue reading United acquiring Pacificare
Read More...Why isn’t workers comp a good business for group health plans? Several clients and industry types have asked for my take on the recent move by Aetna, Coventry, Wellpoint, and possibly UnitedHealth into workers comp. Without giving away too much … Continue reading HMOs and Workers Comp
Read More...Although health plan profits were up substantially in the first 9 months of 2004, only five companies were responsible for over half of those profits. Weiss Ratings’ (along with Fitch, my favorite rating firm) analysis excluded Kaiser, which had gains … Continue reading HMO profits up 33%
Read More...Notes on some of the goings on in the WC managed care world. Concentra has laid off the IT staff in Minnesota (effective 3/31) responsible for maintaining both the “Advancer” case management system (acquired in the purchase of NHR) and … Continue reading Briefs on WC managed care firms
Read More...Kaiser Permanente, one of the oldest and largest HMOs, reported net income for last year increased by 59% to $1.6 billion on revenues of $28 billion. The HMO’s membership (registration required – free) was up slightly to 8.23 million as … Continue reading Kaiser profits increase
Read More...Over the last year or so, there has been quite a bit of speculation, especially in the workers comp arena, about First Health’s future. Consulting clients in particular were unsure of the future direction of the company, as it seemed … Continue reading What happened to First Health?
Read More...Here are the top trends in health care as I see them, using the actuarial method of looking back over my shoulder to see what happened, and thereby predicting the future with confidence. 1. More consolidation amongst health insurers. Many … Continue reading Top Trends in the health insurance markets
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