| Health Net of Arizona Signs a Two-Year Agreement with Phoenix Children's Hospital |
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--(www.FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 12/01/2009 - Health Care Plans industry news provided by Financial News USA. PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Health Net of Arizona, Inc. and Phoenix Children's Hospital (PCH) have renewed a two-year contract that will continue to provide Health Net members access to health care at PCH and its two new urgent care centers located in the East and Northwest Valley. The contract covers Health Net members with employer-sponsored and Individual and Family Plans. Beginning Dec. 1, 2009, members will have access to all of PCH's services, which include specialty and sub-specialty inpatient, outpatient, trauma and emergency care. Carolyn Pace, Health Netâ€(TM)s vice president of Provider Network Management, said, "We are thrilled to continue to offer our members access to Phoenix Children's Hospital's services and their team of highly skilled medical staff. PCH is one of the 10 largest children's hospitals in the nation, and we are excited about their expansion plans. [Read the full article] NEW YORK (AP) -- Medco Health Solutions Inc. and Coventry Health Care Inc. said Tuesday they will work together to see if they can reduce health care costs for senior citizens by addressing factors like home safety, diet, and medication use. The companies say they will conduct a study to determine if they can reduce hospitalizations for seniors on Medicare. Teams of Coventry and Medco employees will identify patients who are at the most risk for hospitalization, and work with their physicians and other agencies to find factors that can cause poor health, and they will keep in touch with patients through regular visits and phone calls. The study will include about 2,150 seniors in the St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., areas on Coventry's Advantra Medicare Advantage Plan. After a year, the rates of hospitalization for the study patients will be compared with other seniors enrolled in the Advantra plan. Medco, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., is the largest U.S. [Read the full article] Pharmacy benefits firm Express Scripts said Tuesday it has completed its $4.7 billion acquisition of WellPoint Inc.'s NextRx subsidiary. The acquisition, which was first announced in April, could push Express Scripts nearer to $40 billion in revenue and make it the St. Louis region's largest public company. The deal includes a 10-year agreement under which Express Scripts will provide pharmacy benefits management services to Indianapolis-based WellPoint's health plan members, including home delivery and specialty services. "At this pivotal moment in American health care, the strategic alliance opens new horizons for improving outcomes for members while driving down overall healthcare costs," Express Scripts Chairman and Chief Executive George Paz said in a statement. © 2009 American City Business Journals, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. [Read the full article] NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of medical device maker NuVasive Inc. fell Tuesday, but rebounded off session lows, as investors remained concerned that health insurers will not reimburse doctors who use the company's XLIF spinal surgery procedure. The San Diego company held a conference call Monday night addressing reimbursement rates by health insurers. It confirmed that recently three insurers have listed XLIF -- in which surgeons operator on the spine through small incisions in the side rather than through a large incision in the back -- as "experimental." That means the insurers will not reimburse surgeons who perform it. But NuVasive said surgeons are still performing the procedure and it maintained its profit and sales forecasts for 2009, and its expectations for growth in 2010. However, in heavy afternoon trading, NuVasive shares slid 77 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $31.68, after tumbling as much as 8 percent during the morning. [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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