Molina Healthcare will buy the Medicaid assets of one of Henry Ford Health System's health plans, and other news

Modern Healthcare

  • Molina Healthcare will buy the Medicaid assets of one of Henry Ford Health System’s health plans. The news comes shortly after the state denied Henry Ford’s appeal of new Medicaid contracts. Henry Ford planned to divest most of its HAP Midwest Health Plan if the state refused to change course on its new managed-care contracts. Henry Ford’s HAP Midwest covers 88,000 Medicaid patients in two populous regions around Detroit, where Henry Ford is based. But HAP Midwest did not retain the business when the state released new contracts in October. Molina, however, won contracts for those two regions, among others. Molina covers about 340,000 Michigan Medicaid patients.

  • Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley released a health policy plan that focuses on bringing down prescription drug prices and continuing to reduce the number of the uninsured. The candidate, who is consistently polling a distant third to front-runners Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has a plan that is similar to that of his party rivals. He stopped short, however, of advocating for the single-payer system that Sanders touts. He also called for repealing the “Cadillac tax” on high-end insurance plans, giving government health programs the power to negotiate drug prices and expanding funding for the National Institutes of Health.

  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration expects to release new guidance by the end of February on a form of birth control that has been linked to more than 15,000 adverse events, including at least a dozen deaths. Essure, a permanent contraception procedure, is a small, soft, flexible coil made of nickel that, when inserted into each fallopian tube, prevents eggs from getting into the uterus. In its announcement last week, the FDA called its review of the safety and efficacy of Essure a “high priority,” and said it is working expeditiously to conduct an evidence-based review of the available information. It plans to communicate its actions publicly within the next three months. Bayer has continued to firmly support the product, saying it is supported by more than a decade of research, the FDA and real-world experience.
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