News in brief - Jan. 14, 2008

Aetna, Cigna expand online consults - New HIT group forms - Pediatrix acquires neonatal group

Aetna, Cigna expand online consults

Cigna and Aetna each have announced that they plan to pay physicians across the U.S. for talking to patients online.

Cigna in December 2007 said it would expand a four-region pilot program it started in July 2006.

The health plan would pay $25 for a typical "webVisit," a consultation through a secure network managed by RelayHealth, Cigna spokesman Mark Slitt said. The service will be available to Cigna members whose employers are self-insured, a group that represents the bulk of Cigna's business, Slitt said.

About 5,000 of Cigna's 500,000 network physicians have used the program in the pilot in California, Arizona, Florida and the New York tri-state area, he said. Reimbursement will expand nationally this year.

Meanwhile, Aetna, which also offers online consultation services through RelayHealth, announced the same month that it has "significantly" expanded its services.

Aetna had tested its system with physicians, mostly in primary care, in California, Florida and Washington. The company says the system will expand to more than 30 specialties nationwide. Aetna did not disclose how much physicians would be paid for online consultations with patients.

New HIT group forms

Several large corporations have formed their own group to help establish security standards for medical information technology.

The Health Information Trust Alliance, based in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas, was announced on Dec. 5, 2007, and is made up of health care companies, such as Hospital Corp. of America, Highmark and CVS Caremark, as well as large corporate payers, such as Cisco Systems and Pitney Bowes.

HITRUST companies agreed to establish a common framework of security standards for HIT, including electronic medical records and e-prescribing, HITRUST CEO Dan Nutkis said at a news conference.

The group believes a government-driven set of standards will be inflexible and will not adapt to the fast pace of change in the business and technological worlds, Nutkis said. A push from the private sector also will create standards faster than a government mandate, he said.

HITRUST hopes to finalize its framework of standards by late 2008, said Nutkis. It expects the framework to become the industry standard because there are so many large stakeholders involved in the process.

The major public-private effort in developing standards is the Health Information Technology Standards Panel, whose members include the AMA. The organization had no position on HITRUST's startup, but an official with the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, another HITSP member, questioned the need for a new HIT standard-setting group.

"I think it adds to the confusion," said CCHIT Chair Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD.

Pediatrix acquires neonatal group

Pediatrix Medical Group, a publicly traded company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said it has completed the acquisition of a neonatal physician group that provides care at two Seattle-area hospitals.

Pediatrix acquired four-physician Northwest Newborn & Pediatric Services of Seattle. The price was not disclosed. That gave Pediatrix 10 physician group practice acquisitions for 2007.

The doctors are in the house
The AMA's House of Delegates is holding its Interim Meeting Nov. 7-10 in Houston, addressing issues such as health system reform and physician payment.
Meeting coverage - Slideshow