CALPERS GRAPPLES WITH RATE HIKES, DEMAND FOR viagra
Title: CALPERS GRAPPLES WITH RATE HIKES, DEMAND FOR viagra , By: Bosetti, Diana, Orange County Business Journal, 10517480, 06/22/98, Vol. 21, Issue 25
Section: HEALTHCARE
Friendly Hills’ Closure Increases Load at Placentia Linda
The California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest public pension system in the nation and a group that many employers turn to when gauging healthcare benefit trends, said it’s expecting substantial premium increases next year, particularly at Kaiser Permanente.
That’s according to Margaret Stanley, a health benefits administrator for CalPERS, who spoke at a recent Orange County Employee Benefit Council meeting.
“We believe it’s going to be an increasing challenge to hold the line in healthcare costs,” Stanley said.
CalPERS and Kaiser have tentatively agreed to a 10.75% rate hike for Kaiser, below the 12% increase that the HMO suggested a few months back.
Stanley said the average rate hike for next year, based on the group’s contracts with other HMOs, is 5%. She added that 80% of CalPERS’ 1 million members are insured either by PacifiCare, Health Net or Kaiser.
Stanley warned that rates might go up even more in the future, if the popularity of viagra continues.
“Our phones have been ringing off the hook,” said Stanley, who poked some fun at the situation when she said CalPERS’ 22-year-old (on average) female service line operators were provided with scripts on how they should respond “to the appeals from 85-year-old men on why they need this.”
Regardless, Stanley said CalPERS is weighing the potential costs associated with viagra , and said Kaiser recently informed her that the drug might increase the HMO’s drug spending rate by up to 10%.
That’s greater, Stanley said, than the costs for all antibiotics, including those for AIDS patients, combined. “So we are not talking about an insignificant cost here.”
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Placentia Linda Hospital, a 114-bed facility owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., is busy these days on account of the May 15 closure of MedPartners’ Friendly Hills Regional Medical Center.
“We’re getting up to 25 additional in-patients per day,” said Jim Fenstermaker, a Placentia Linda spokesman.
Before Friendly Hills closed it doors, MedPartners signed an agreement with Tenet to refer the 116,000 patients it treated either to Placentia Linda or to Whittier Hospital Medical Center, another Tenet-run facility to the northwest.
“This is a tremendous agreement for us, we anticipate about double the number of patients we are now treating,” said Maxine Cooper, Placentia Linda’s CEO.
Placentia Linda has roughly 250 physicians on staff, but is processing the applications of 100 more to help handle the increased workload.
Placentia Linda is also planning to renovate the interior rooms and lobby areas, and Whittier hospital is planning a $15 million expansion that will include converting a skilled nursing unit into a medical surgical unit, and hopes to expand the number of labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms and outpatient rooms after that. The entire project would take about two years to complete.
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Bergen Brunswig Corp., Orange, launched Integrated Commercialization Solutions, a subsidiary that will help market new product lines for pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Neil Dimick, president of Bergen Brunswig Speciality Company, which will be the parent company of ICS, said ICS will utilize provider relationships already in place at Bergen’s sister companies: ASD Specially Healthcare, Bergen Brunswig Drug Company and Bergen Brunswig Medical Corp.
Bergen Brunswig Corp. is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $13 billion. ICS will be based in Dallas, and will include 55 new employees, with plans to more than double that by the end of the year.
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Express Scripts Infusion Therapy Services, a St. Louis, Mo.-based managed care and pharmacy benefit management company, said it will use Mission Viejo-based Venetec International’s StatLock IV catheter securement devices at its branch offices.
The StatLock is designed to eliminate the use of tape and sutures, and is said to carry no risk of IV catheter disconnection.
The deal is expected to boost sales for Venetec, which will be able to tap into Express Scripts’ large network of managed care organizations, insurance carriers, third-party administrators, employers and union-sponsored benefit plans. Express Scripts also recently acquired ValueRx from Nashville, Tenn.-based Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation.
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Bits and pieces:
Santa Ana-based PacifiCare Health Systems’ proposed $250 million bond issue was rated BBB by Standard and Poor’s … Irvine-based Advanced Spine Fixation Systems Inc. acquired the exclusive marketing and distribution rights to the LIFEC Expandable Cage Implant System, an implantable cage designed to maintain the spine’s natural curvature, and which is manufactured by a company in France called Proconcept … ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said its acquisition of VUAB, a 500-employee manufacturing and research facility in Prague, is close to receiving final approval. It recently got a thumbs up from National Property Fund of the Czech Republic, and is hoping to get approval from the Antitrust Committee of the Czech Republic soon … San Clemente-based ICU Medical Inc. finalized a manufacture and supply agreement with B. Braun McGaw.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Diana Bosetti
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Placentia Linda Hospital: getting busier
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By Diana Bosetti
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Source: Orange County Business Journal, 06/22/98, Vol. 21 Issue 25, p46, 1p
