Humana and CVS/pharmacy Announce Partnership to Educate Customers about Health Coverage Options under the Affordable Care Act

Humana representatives will be available in more than 500 CVS/pharmacy locations over the next six months to address health coverage questions from individuals and their families

LOUISVILLE, Ky. & WOONSOCKET, R.I., Oct 04, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Humana Inc. HUM -0.04% , one of the nation's leading health and well-being companies, and CVS/pharmacy, America's leading retail pharmacy, today announced a strategic retail partnership designed to educate individuals and their families about their health care coverage options under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Humana representatives will be present at CVS/pharmacy's Project Health events starting this month. Humana will also be holding in-store events at CVS/pharmacy locations to educate individuals and their families about health care coverage options under the ACA.

-- CVS/pharmacy's Project Health - Project Health is a CVS/pharmacy wellness program designed to improve access to health care and deliver preventive services. Humana representatives will be present to answer questions about health coverage under ACA at 80 CVS/pharmacy Project Health weekly events in states such as Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, and Texas during the months of October and November.

-- Health Coverage Information - Humana representatives will also be in more than 500 CVS/pharmacy stores located in 12 of the 14 states* where Humana is offering individual health insurance as a Qualified Health Plan on Federal and state individual market public exchanges. Representatives will answer questions that individuals and their families may have about their health coverage options. Representatives will be in CVS stores select Wednesdays, between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., throughout the six-month open enrollment period for the Health Insurance Marketplace, which started Tuesday, Oct. 1.

"Humana's partnership with CVS/pharmacy reflects our proven and ongoing commitment to educate individuals and their families at the places they go when they have questions about their health," said Roy A. Beveridge, MD, Humana's Chief Medical Officer. "We're working to ensure people develop a better understanding of how their health coverage can help them make better, and healthier, decisions."

"Providing information about new health insurance coverage opportunities is in keeping with our purpose of helping people on their path to better health," said Helena Foulkes, Executive Vice President and Chief Health Care Strategy and Marketing Officer for CVS Caremark. "We are pleased to combine our innovative suite of services and our new and existing relationships with organizations such as Humana to help patients understand and have access to information about insurance options in their community."

Humana and CVS/pharmacy will also provide educational brochures and other materials that will be available to individuals and their families.

People can visit www.HCR411.com in order to find the closest CVS/pharmacy store that has a Humana representative. Individuals can view a listing of the stores that have Humana representatives, as well as the dates and times they'll be in-store by typing in their zip code.

For the past several months, Humana has focused its efforts on educating people about the impact of health care reform. The company unveiled the website "Health Care For You," which can be accessed at www.humana.com/HealthcareForYou. The site is designed to help educate individuals on their health care coverage options via a character-driven experience focused on baby boomers, families with children and young independents.

Humana also recently announced a partnership with the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA),whereby the company is sponsoring health and wellness community events and health care reform educational seminars - led by Humana representatives - at select YMCA locations throughout the six-month open enrollment period for Health Insurance Marketplaces.

*CVS/pharmacy does not have stores in Utah and Colorado, where Humana is on exchange.

About Humana

Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a leading health care company that offers a wide range of insurance products and health and wellness services that incorporate an integrated approach to lifelong well-being. By leveraging the strengths of its core businesses, Humana believes it can better explore opportunities for existing and emerging adjacencies in health care that can further enhance wellness opportunities for the millions of people across the nation with whom the company has relationships.

More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's web site at www.humana.com, including copies of:

-- Annual reports to stockholders;

-- Securities and Exchange Commission filings;

-- Most recent investor conference presentations;

-- Quarterly earnings news releases;

-- Replays of most recent earnings release conference calls;

-- Calendar of events (including upcoming earnings conference call dates and times, as well as planned interaction with research analysts and institutional investors);

-- Corporate Governance information.

About CVS/pharmacy

CVS/pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Caremark Corporation CVS +0.04% , is America's leading retail pharmacy with more than 7,500 CVS/pharmacy and Longs Drug stores. CVS/pharmacy is reinventing pharmacy to help people on their path to better health by providing the most accessible and personalized expertise, both in its stores and online at CVS.com. General information about CVS/pharmacy and CVS Caremark is available at http://info.cvscaremark.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20131004005543/en/

SOURCE: Humana Inc.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/humana-and-cvspharmacy-announce-partnership-to-educate-customers-about-health-coverage-options-under-the-affordable-care-act-2013-10-04?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Scott & White, Baylor Health Care become one through merger

YNN: Scott & White, Baylor Health Care become one through merger
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Long a staple in Central Texas’ healthcare landscape, Scott & White Hospital announced Thursday it will merge with Baylor Health Care, another major player in the area.

Company officials say the deal will result in Baylor Scott & White and will provide a cheaper and more efficient service for patients.

"We are going to lower the cost of the practice of medicine,” Drayton McLane Jr., Chairman of Scott & White’s Board of Trustees said. “We think this is going to put us in leadership in the Southwest."

Officials say the discussions to form the new Baylor Scott and White healthcare system started two years ago. The systems' parallel missions were the selling point.

"We saw the similarities,” McLane said. “Both organizations are based on Christian healing. Both organizations are physician-centric."

Leaders from both systems also say the implementation of the Affordable Care Act played a role in the merger. They knew change was coming, and they wanted to meet the new health care standards.

"We knew pretty much where it was going, so it made sense two years ago when we didn't know anything about what we know today," Dr. Robert Pryor, president of Baylor Scott & White said.

They hope to reduce health care costs by focusing on reducing the time patients stay in the hospital and they want to make sure everyone who needs health care gets it.

"Twenty-seven percent of the people that live in Texas are uninsured. Though it's unacceptable we have to get a health plan system that makes health care affordable and everyone can have access to it," SO AND SO said.

The new healthcare system will have 43 hospitals across Central and North Texas.

http://austin.ynn.com/content/news/295587/scott---white--baylor-health-care-become-one-through-merger

Meaningful Use Payments To Continue Despite Gov't Shutdown

Meaningful use incentive payments will continue despite a federal government shutdown, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MedPage Today's "The Gupta Guide" reports.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments (Pittman, "The Gupta Guide," MedPage Today, 10/3).

Background on Shutdown

The shutdown came after lawmakers on Monday failed to advance legislation to continue funding the federal government.

Only four of the 184 employees at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT were retained during the shutdown to work on the "orderly phase-down and suspension of operations."

Meanwhile, HHS furloughed 52% of its workforce, or about 40,512 employees (iHealthBeat, 10/1).

Meaningful Use Payments Continue

In a tweet on Thursday, Mostashari wrote that CMS "continues to process mandatory payments to docs and hospitals."

He added that meaningful use incentive payments "do not come from annual appropriations" and that CMS "continue[s] to receive attestations."

Thursday was the last day that physicians and eligible professionals could start the attestation process to qualify for Stage 1 meaningful use program incentive payments in 2013 ("The Gupta Guide," MedPage Today, 10/3).

Meanwhile, the federal government shutdown led to the postponement of a House committee hearing on FDA's health IT regulatory strategy that was scheduled for Thursday, Modern Healthcare's "Vital Signs" reports.

Among those scheduled to testify at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee were:

• Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health; and
• Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

They were slated to discuss the FDA Safety Innovation Act (Conn, "Vital Signs," Modern Healthcare, 10/3).

The act authorized the creation of the FDASIA work group, which was tasked with developing a report that proposes strategies and recommendations for a risk-based regulatory framework for mobile health applications and other health IT tools (iHealthBeat, 8/8).

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2013/10/4/meaningful-use-payments-to-continue-despite-govt-shutdown