- Pittsburgh-based UPMC must continue to provide in-network services to members of Highmark’s Medicare Advantage plans, a Pennsylvania judge ruled. Claiming Highmark had failed to pay contracted rates for cancer care, the UPMC system announced in April that it planned to end its Advantage contracts with Highmark at the end of the year. The state took UPMC and Highmark to court, saying they had violated the terms of a consent decree reached between the two parties. More than 180,000 Pennsylvania seniors are part of Medicare Advantage plans. UPMC has already said it plans to appeal the decision.
- Susannah Fox, the former associate director of the Pew Research Center and more recently the “entrepreneur in residence” at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has been named chief technology officer at HHS. In a blog post on the HHS website, Fox said she intends to support and expand the “data liberacion” work begun by former CTO Todd Park to make federal healthcare data more readily available to researchers and entrepreneurs. Fox worked at Pew for 14 years and was a key researcher for its Internet & American Life Project, focusing on health, health information technology, social media and patient engagement.
- Medtronic, the Dublin-based medical device giant, is looking for takeover targets in the Chinese market. CEO Omar Ishrak told investors Friday that he believes the developing world will represent a $7 billion market opportunity by 2019. China’s growing middle class and aging population makes it a target for the healthcare industry. Ishrak said medical device makers increasingly need to demonstrate the economic value of their products. Medtronic isn’t the only one looking east. On first quarter earnings calls, a number of medical device companies reported rapid growth in China, which outperformed the U.S. and Europe.
State court rules UPMC must continue to provide in-network services to Highmark's Medicare Advantage plans, and other news
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