News in brief - June 14, 2004

Calif. to examine insurance merger - United expands in Europe - Computers miss prescribing errors - Greenway lands venture capital

Calif. to examine insurance merger

Legislators in the California General Assembly have formed a special committee to hold a hearing on the proposed merger between Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based WellPoint Health Networks and Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc.

The committee is expected to hold the hearing in June.

The committee was appointed by Democratic leaders in the state after a California newspaper reported that the California Dept. of Managed Health Care had decided it was not necessary to hold a hearing on the merger.

G. Lewis Chartrand, chief deputy director of the department, said it was still possible that his agency would hold its own hearing but that the matter was not yet decided.

The Dept. of Managed Health Care normally holds a public hearing when insurers in the state merge to determine if the merger would affect availability of health care, physician and hospital networks, or insurer capitalization, Chartrand said.

The $15.5 billion Anthem-WellPoint merger is expected to be completed this summer, said Ken Ferber, WellPoint spokesman. The only states that still must approve the deal are California and Georgia, he said.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Dept. of Justice have approved the merger. Shareholders from each company will meet at the end of June to vote on the proposed deal, Ferber said.

United expands in Europe

UnitedHealth Group is expanding a London-based subsidiary that provides health care services to the United Kingdom's National Health Service.

The Minnetonka, Minn.-based health insurer says it also is planning to offer some health-related services to other European nations in the future.

For two years, United has participated in a trial program, Evercare, aimed at improving the treatment of chronic illness among senior citizens in England.

The new subsidiary will introduce computerized collection and analysis of health care data and will be headed by Simon Stevens, a health adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, the company said.

Computers miss prescribing errors

Computers often fail to warn physicians of certain potentially serious prescribing errors, according to a study published in the May 15, 2004, issue of the British Medical Journal.

While four computer systems commonly used by 75% of the general practitioners in the United Kingdom sharply reduce errors by making prescriptions and dosages more legible than those that are handwritten, researchers found that those systems often failed to alert physicians for contraindications for which medications should not be prescribed.

For example, as part of a simulated test involving 18 different scenarios the researchers conducted, none of the systems tested would have alerted users against prescribing propranolol for patients with a history of asthma, and one would not have warned doctors against prescribing penicillin to patients allergic to it. A solution to the problem "is to have more explicit regulation about the situations in which suppliers should implement specific alerts," the study said.

Greenway lands venture capital

Greenway Medical Technologies Inc., Carrollton, Ga., has raised $20.3 million from a venture capital firm and individual investors. The seller of practice management and electronic medical records software says it will use the money to expand sales staff, customer support and product development.