Humana news from FierceHealthIT

Working with anonymized claims data from 11 million Humana enrollees, University of Miami researchers will begin work on a study of unexpected drug interactions and dangerous prescribing practices. Read more...

Minnesota providers and insurers will soon become the first in the United States required to file all claims electronically. A new law, which takes effect in 2009, includes all business-to-business transactions, as well as transactions between providers, insurers and the state.

The law also impacts worker's comp claims, chiropractic, dental and pharmacy claims and medical care claims filed through auto insurance plans. Insurers and providers will be required to follow a standard …

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CMS is partnering with a group of health plans for a program designed to encourage Medicare beneficiaries to use PHRs. True, CMS already offers the PHRs to patients with Medicare Advantage and/or Medicare Part D coverage, through its www.mymedicare.gov site. But the new program, whose participants include HIP USA, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, hopes to …

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> BlueCross BlueShield of Florida and Humana have begun expanding their multi-payer EMR effort. Article

> San Antonio's Christus Health is planning a new $21 million, 43,000-square-foot data center.  Article

> PHRs may be the flavor of the moment, but recent research suggests that underserved …

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Florida has become another front in the battle to foster e-prescribing adoption, with a group of health plans banding together to get the job done. The group, ePrescribe Florida, is led by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, UnitedHealthcare, Humana and AvMed. Other participants include CIGNA, Aetna, the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Florida Pharmacy Association, Florida Medical Association, Florida Hospital Association and vendors RxHub and SureScripts. The group's goal is to …

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Beth Israel's IT staff didn't want to discourage its active and friendly medical research community. Supporting free and open exchange among researchers is central to the mission of the medical center, which serves as a Harvard teaching hospital. But IT admins were becoming concerned about the extent to which researchers exchanged large, unencrypted files. Not only were they worried about data security, the large files were bogging down their e-mail server and other IT resources. To …

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BlueCross BlueShield of Florida and Humana are kicking off an initiative designed to speed real-time claims adjudication. The two health plans are already partners in Availity, a claims processing gateway. With this initiative, they plan to expand the effort to other payers, claims clearinghouses and practice management groups, the groups said in their press release. Physician groups that participate in this phase of the RTCA rollout must use physician physician revenue, clinical cycle …

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New research is predicting that with the growth in consumer-driven health plans, the industry will come to rely on "smart" debit cards linking clinical data, health plan coverage/eligibility information and personal identity details. The study, conducted by HealthLeaders/Interstudy, predicts that in time, a single card will have access to a consumer's bank, payor and provider systems. In this world, it will be possible for a consumer to see a provider, get benefits verified, a claim …

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