HealthPartners, Medica, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and UCare last year agreed to cap their 2011 profits from insurance coverage to low-income Minnesotans at an amount equal to 1 percent of revenue; they pledged to return the rest to taxpayers.
Health Care + Med Tech
The lawsuit claimed that Medtronic did not disclose to shareholders the adverse effects of its Infuse product, illegally marketed the product for uses not approved by regulators, and did not disclose to shareholders how much of the company's revenue from Infuse came from these unapproved uses.
TriWest-which originally won the health care contract but recently lost it to UnitedHealth Group after the government reopened the bidding process-is protesting the government's decision.
The court determined that Prometheus' blood test involved naturally occurring phenomena, and its patents are therefore invalid; the ruling is expected to have broad implications in the scientific community.
The Plymouth-based company said it has gathered additional information on its eSVS Mesh device in order to address questions that regulators had raised.
The deal through which the Irish health care giant will buy SuperDimension- which develops minimally invasive devices used to diagnose and possibly treat lung disease-is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
UnitedHealth Group persuaded the government to revisit its 2009 decision to award a U.S. Department of Defense contract to TriWest; the bidding process was reopened, and the contract has now been awarded to UnitedHealth Group.
UnitedHealth Group's international division has expanded health insurance coverage to employers that have workers in the Middle East.
Rochester and Minneapolis followed close behind and ranked third and fourth, respectively, in a ranking recently released by the Commonwealth Fund.
A new report suggests that the economic upturn either hasn't produced jobs that would offer employer-based insurance or coverage gains associated with new jobs have been offset by coverage losses at other companies.
Eden Prairie-based Osprey Medical hopes to raise approximately $21.2 million through an initial public offering launched Thursday and expects to start trading on the Australian Securities Exchange by mid-April.
The Rochester-based clinic has been granted $2.5 million to find out if a compound derived from snake venom can be useful to heart attack patients.
O'Neal Hampton, a former Biggest Loser contestant who shed 170 pounds, is launching a foundation in Bloomington to spread the gospel of healthy lifestyles by connecting obese people with experienced nutritionists, among other services.
Bill Hawkins, who served as CEO of Medtronic from 2007 to 2011, has been tapped as the chairman of a new public-private partnership that aims to establish a regulatory science center in Minnesota.
UnitedHealthcare has agreed to acquire two Florida based companies-deals that will add about 85,000 Medicare Advantage members and 12,200 Medicaid members from across Florida to the company's fold, along with eight primary care centers in the state.
The grant comes at a time when an important deadline is looming; by January 1, 2013, each state must demonstrate that its own health insurance exchange will work.
G&K expects its CEO, who is taking a temporary medical leave, to "recover fully within four to six weeks" and "completely resume his normal duties upon his return."
Allina Hospitals & Clinics will soon be known as Allina Health, a name that reflects its focus on keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital.