| CIGNA Receives Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Help Improve High Blood Pressure Control in Diverse Populations |
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--(www.FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 10/23/2009 - Health Care Plans industry news provided by Financial News USA. BLOOMFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CIGNA (NYSE:CI) has received a grant from Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) at the University of Chicago that evaluates interventions aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic health care disparities in local communities. CIGNA and six other grantees were selected from a pool of 111 proposals and join 21 sites awarded funding since December 2006. CIGNA was the only commercial health plan to receive a grant from the Finding Answers program this year and will use it to study novel ways to improve high blood pressure control in diverse populations. The project will be administered jointly between CIGNA and RAND Corporation and will draw on CIGNA's broad clinical expertise and RAND's extensive health care research design expertise. [Read the full article] UnitedHealth and Pfizer both reported better-than-expected Q3 earnings Tuesday. Now they'll turn their attention to weightier matters. UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), which beat profit views by 13 cents a share, will keep its eye on the nation's capital, where Congress is weighing health care legislation that could have a big impact on HMOs. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), which topped Q3 views by 3 cents, will focus on integrating its buyout of Wyeth, cutting costs and beefing up its pipeline. UnitedHealth shares rose 4% to 25.96. Pfizer touched a 9-month high of 18.43 but faded with the general market to close down 5 cents to 17.93. UnitedHealth has the more pressing concern. Democrats want to pass a health care overhaul by year-end, though no one seems to know what a final bill will look like. "The worst-case scenario is a huge public option and a demand that insurers cover pre-existing conditions," said Les Funtleyder, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Co. [Read the full article] Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to the UnitedHealth Group third quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks there will be a question and answer period. (Operator's Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. This call and its contents are the property of UnitedHealth Group. Any use, copying, or distribution without written permission from UnitedHealth Group is strictly prohibited. Here is some important introductory information. This call will reference non-GAAP amounts. A reconciliation of non GAAP to GAAP amounts if available on the financial reports and SEC filings section of the company's investor pages at www.unitedhealthgroup.com. This call contains forward looking statements under US federal security laws. [Read the full article] LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HumanaOne, the individual health arm of Humana, is launching new individual dental insurance and vision plans on www.humanaonedental.com. With the launch of these products, HumanaOne also is expanding its affordable dental and vision plans to a number of states it had not previously served. We're excited to be expanding to new areas of the country at a time when more and more people are in the market for individual health products, including dental and vision plans," said Steven DeRaleau, chief operating officer of HumanaOne. “These are affordable plans for the self-employed or for people who may not have dental and vision coverage through their employer's group plan.†Both plans are available regardless of a person's health condition, with some plans starting at as little as $13.99 a month in some states. [Read the full article] About Financial News USA Financial News USA is a Next Generation Financial Communications firm focused on the distribution of market moving news. Financial News USA has developed leading edge e-publishing tools including programming proprietary RSS feeds and enabling open source press release publishing across its network. Financial News USA has been aggressively expanding its news distribution network by targeting direct feeds to financial news and data providers such as FinancialContent, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), among others. Financial News USA offers a free news feed available online (www.financialnewsusa.com) to websites and financial services looking for content and for individual investors looking to stay informed on the financial markets. Financial News USA and its affiliates charge each client cash for news distribution and may take an equity position in the companies mentioned herein, please visit the disclaimer at www.financialnewsusa.com. 
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