Kansas City is the new home of a major pilot initiative for value-based insurance design, with major employers pulling together to gather and evaluate data needed to calculate results of VBID moves.
Kansas and Missouri health plans are using a mix of different cost-control methods to contain radiology costs and drug costs.
Missouri is considering expansion of its managed Medicaid program into Southwest Missouri, opening up a new potential region for insurers to capture some business. But other healthcare reform initiatives are likely sidelined by the economic crisis and pressures on state budgets.
The clinic business is still growing, and not just in drugstores and supermarkets.
Medicare drug plans are cutting their gap coverage and raising prices in order to maintain margins, with players retreating from auto-assigned low-income beneficiaries.