News in brief - Feb. 28, 2005

New career resource available - Pa. Blues plans contribute to access program - N.Y. plans agree to be more responsive

New career resource available

Job listings from the Journal of the American Medical Association and Archives journals are now available on one comprehensive Web site, JAMA CareerNet (www.jamacareernet.com).

Access to the content is free, and there is no registration requirement to search the job listings.

The Web site also offers information on everything from graduate medical education to personal finance.

Pa. Blues plans contribute to access program

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell announced in February that four Blues carriers in the state had agreed to tap their reserves to pump $1 billion over the next six years into programs that would improve access to basic medical care.

Highmark Inc., Independence Blue Cross, BlueCross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Capital BlueCross will take part in the program, named Annual Community Health Reinvestment.

The contributions of each plan will be calculated based on premiums it collects, with each plan contributing approximately 1% of its annual premium income to the reinvestment program.

Sixty percent of the funds donated will flow to state-approved programs for the uninsured and the poor, while the balance will go for other community health programs chosen by each Blues company and for subsidies to help people afford the cost of care.

The state's Blues plans, which are nonprofit, have been criticized by some for amassing large surplus reserves of money and not paying enough attention to initiatives that benefit the public good.

N.Y. plans agree to be more responsive

Twenty-one health plans doing business in New York have told state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer they will take steps to be more responsive when patients ask for information on which medical treatments are covered.

The agreement with the plans, announced Feb. 10, says that the companies will supply current and prospective plan members with details on the "clinical review criteria" they use to determine payment policies.

A year ago, Spitzer's staff posed as prospective insurance plan members and sent letters to all health plans offering individual coverage in New York. They requested specific details on whether the plans would cover certain procedures, durable medical goods or nutritional supplements. Plans are required to give this information under the state's Managed Care Consumer Bill of Rights, but Spitzer's investigators found in every instance that they either received inadequate replies from the health plans or no replies at all.

Under the agreement, the health plans promise to answer such questions fully, to submit annual compliance reports to Spitzer's office, and to pay $5,000 each to cover the state's costs.