News in brief - March 7, 2011

Cigna hires national radiology benefit manager

Philadelphia-based health plan Cigna has decided to contract with a single company as a contact for physicians ordering high-tech imaging and will add nuclear cardiology to the list of scans that require prior authorization.

MedSolutions, a radiology utilization manager based in Franklin, Tenn., will handle requests for imaging tests for all of Cigna's 11.4 million members, taking over territory handled by two other vendors and maintaining responsibility for the areas it already covered.

Alan Muney, MD, Cigna's senior vice president for total health and network, said the company believed it would be more efficient to use a single vendor. It chose MedSolutions in part because the company offers a predictive modeling tool that identifies physicians who always follow clinical guidelines so the company can grant those doctors automatic approval for imaging.

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Anthem files for another rate increase in Maine

After contentious bids to raise rates on individual subscribers in Maine in 2009 and 2010, WellPoint subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine has filed a request for an average 9.7% increase in premiums for 11,000 subscribers to take effect in July. The maximum requested increase is 19%.

Maine Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman has ruled Anthem's last two rate increase requests excessive and approved smaller increases than the plan wanted. In April 2010, a court upheld her 2009 decision to lower the increase in rates to a level that Anthem projected would allow for it to just break even. She again lowered a requested rate hike in 2010 but allowed the company a projected 0.5% profit margin. Anthem's appeal of that decision remains pending.

As her office prepares to consider the most recent request, Kofman already has scheduled public meetings for March 14 in Portland and March 21 in Orono, at the University of Maine's campus. She also hired actuarial consultants to help review Anthem's filing.

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2011 begins with high number of hospital mass layoffs

A significant number of mass layoffs occurred at hospitals in January, according to data released Feb. 23 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A mass layoff is defined as at least 50 people claiming unemployment after losing their jobs from a single company. Smaller incidents are not included in the count.

Sixteen mass layoffs involving at least 1,133 people occurred at hospitals in January. These incidents declined in the final months of 2010, with three at hospitals in December 2010. At least 173 people lost their jobs that month. An additional six incidents occurred in November 2010, leading 419 to claim unemployment benefits.

The year 2010 still came close to breaking a record, with 137 mass layoffs affecting at least 10,490 people. Those numbers made 2010 the second-worst year for mass layoffs and the third-worst for number of people affected in the past 15 years.

Some mass layoffs occurred in the ambulatory setting, a category that includes physician offices. Ambulatory medical settings had a total of 12 mass layoffs in January, leading to more than 863 people losing jobs.

This content was published online only.

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