News in brief - May 9, 2011

AMA to host physician leadership seminar

The American Medical Association is holding an educational session in June on engaging physician leaders to improve the quality and value of medical care.

Physician leadership is considered particularly key for the health system to adapt to the changes mandated by reform legislation, such as the formation of accountable care organizations.

"Leadership in Health Care Change: If Not Physicians, Then Who?" will be held June 18 in Chicago. The session, which is free for physicians and hospital executives, is run in conjunction with the AMA's House of Delegates Annual Meeting. Attendees do not have to be AMA members.

The keynote speech will be given by health lawyer Alice Gosfield. Panelists include AMA Immediate Past President J. James Rohack, MD.

More information and registration is online (www.ama-assn.org/go/leadership).

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Aetna will purchase health plan administrator

Aetna has agreed to buy Prodigy Health Group, a large, privately held third-party administrator based in New York.

Aetna will pay about $600 million to purchase the company from majority owner One Equity Partners, a private equity firm funded solely by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Aetna did not specify how it was funding the purchase, except to say it was with "available resources."

Prodigy and Aetna have been in business together since at least 2006, when Aetna agreed to let Prodigy's clients access its PPO network and stop-loss insurance.

Prodigy serves self-insured employers, who assume the risk of paying employees' health claims directly rather than paying a premium to an insurer.

Prodigy operates under four business names: Meritain Health for its third-party administrator business; American Health Holding for medical management; Niagara Re, a stop-loss carrier; and Scrip World for pharmacy benefit management. The company serves about 600,000 medical members and 450,000 pharmacy benefit members and operates in 15 states.

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Health IT work force gets a boost

More than 2,000 health information technology professionals are ready to join the work force after graduating in April under programs run under the Community College Consortia to Educate Health IT Professionals. That number is expected to rise to more than 3,000 graduates by the end of the summer.

The program is part of a broader initiative started by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology aimed at reducing the shortage of health IT professionals needed to help practices and hospitals become meaningful users of electronic medical record systems. The ONC estimates that 50,000 health IT professionals will be needed nationwide.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 appropriated $2 billion for health IT programs, which included the work force development programs.

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