CIGNA, (NYSE:CI - News), one of the nation leading healthcare providers, is partnering with HealthCompare (www.healthcompare.com), a one-stop online guide to help individuals and families easily research, compare, buy and enroll in the right health insurance plan at the right price.

With more than 9.5 percent of our nation population currently unemployed, it is crucial that the healthcare industry understand and cater to the changing needs of today consumers. A partnership between CIGNA and HealthCompare will allow both companies an opportunity to successfully meet their demands and expectations.

“Based on these staggering unemployment statistics, it is critical for us to help the millions of people who are currently without proper health coverage,” said Kathy Feeny, Senior Vice President of HealthCompare. [Read the full article]

Over 30% of the companies reporting this earnings season have missed on revenue expectations, just about the same percentage of companies that reported for all of the first quarter this year. It’s important to look at both top-line (i.e. revenues) and bottom-line (i.e. earnings) during your earnings season assessment. On the other side of the coin, only 20% of companies so far have missed earnings expectations. As a fluctuating environment plays out, here are two positive company stories from yesterday: Raised Guidance: Analysts from FactSet were expecting full-year profits of $3.34 per share and UNH executives confidently upped their guidance to between $3.40-$3.60 per share for the full-year. Comment: Shares of UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) are down around 1% following the company’s earnings release, trading at $30.59 per share. [Read the full article]

On Tuesday, UnitedHealth (UNH) raised guidance by 20 cents a share, lowering 2Q 2010's medical loss ratio by 2.10% from 2Q2009 while reporting 50% more cash from operations in 1H2010 than 1H2009. This is the sort of outcome I predicted in a talk at Yale on my start-up's plans to lower American health insurance costs post-Reform. The Reform's underwriting restrictions enhance the competitive position of UNH more than any other publicly traded managed care company focused on risk insurance (HUM, WLP, CI, HNT, CVH, AET). Usually, in investing, large companies are the least likely to grow. However, in health insurance today, by capping medical loss ratios and restricting patient premium differentiation, Reform will most adversely impact smaller managed care companies. Larger insurers will be better positioned to take short-term losses on underwriting both because of their absolutely larger balance sheet depth and because of their relatively lower, average expense ratios. [Read the full article]

MedeAnalytics, a leading provider of healthcare performance management solutions, announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT - News) to provide performance management solutions for Health Net's health plan operations and Medicare products. The solutions will enhance Health Net's current data analytics capabilities and include Medical Management Analytics, Provider Network Management Analytics and Operations Performance Management.

Medical Management Analytics helps manage medical costs through quality improvement and utilization management. Specific key performance measures include emergency room coding and utilization, readmissions, one-day stays, length-of-stay efficiency and asthma therapy. [Read the full article]