Mark Bertolini, CEO, Aetna | Photo Credit: HIMSS 2014 Event Staff
By Jonah Comstock
There may not have been a lot of news from payers (or health insurance companies) at HIMSS 2014 in Orlando, Florida, but their presence was definitely felt. Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini's keynote address laid out the stakes well: healthcare costs are rising markedly, and it's everyone's job to try to keep them down...
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini started his keynote at HIMSS here in Orlando, Florida with a simple fact: Aetna is doing well, but the healthcare system in general isn't. And for the latter problem, mobile is a big part of the solution.
"Inside my organization today, with record membership, our large staff of physicians, and record revenue, people would look at me and say 'Why would you want to change...
Fertility tracking app maker Glow announced a program for employers, Glow for Enterprise, which provides women employees with financial assistance for fertility treatments.
“We think there is so much more to learn about our health and our bodies," Glow CEO Mike Huang said in a statement. "Both women and men spend much of their lives trying to avoid pregnancy, but then when they’re ready to start...
Optum, a division of the UnitedHealth Group, has purchased a majority stake in Audax Health Solutions in a deal "which included cash, options, preferred stock, and significant working capital," according to Audax.
Around the same time, Audax filed a $29 million funding raise with the SEC. It's likely that Optum's investment was contained within that round. UPDATE: Audax has told MobiHealthNews...
Krames Staywell's Text Connection messaging software
A small pilot study of text message interventions for pregnant women and people with diabetes suggests that people respond positively to receiving text messages from their insurance company.
Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, an insurer with 2.2 million members in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Utah, worked with Krames Staywell to offer health...
While it didn't release any specific financial details, b2b activity tracker company FitLinxx recently announced it saw a 55 percent increase in revenues year-over-year. FitLinxx cited increased demand for its trackers in corporate wellness programs as well as the company's expansion into consumer, health plan, and health care provider markets in the US and UK.
"The corporate wellness space is...
Wyoming Medicaid launched a smartphone app for pregnant women last week in partnership with mobile health engagement platform developer Wildflower Health. The smartphone app will be a tool offered through the Wyoming Department of Health's program "WYhealth Get Plugged In", which is sponsored by Xerox.
Wildflower Health was also part of a Rock Health class, which had its demo day in February 2013...
Employee health and wellness platform Keas announced new customers this morning including Target, Wix, Safeway and American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings.
Existing Keas customers include Pfizer, Salesforce, Reed Elsevier, The Cheesecake Factory, and BAE Systems.
Target is offering the Keas platform to all employees, not just those who are eligible for the company's healthcare benefits. Target...
Four years ago Congress created a new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation as part of its Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Innovation Center's purpose was “to test innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce program expenditures... while preserving or enhancing quality of care.” Congress has allotted $10 billion to support the Innovation Center for its first ten...
AARP seeks health startups for LivePitch event in Boston: AARP is hosting an event in Boston in May that will include an Innovation@50+ LivePitch session for digital health startups focused on the "50 and over" population. The event is looking for both very early stage startups in the "concept phase" as well as those that are a bit further along and have raised money but not more than $5 million...
