In a new agreement, Interwell Health will provide care to Humana Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO members with chronic kidney disease in 13 states. It will also serve patients with end-stage kidney disease across the country.

Some of the highest-ranked Medicare Advantage plans are SCAN Health Plan, Humana, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, UPMC for Life and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, according to a new J.D. Power report.

Author Health helps seniors with serious mental illness and substance use disorders by working with Medicare Advantage plans. The company launched Wednesday with $115 million in financing, and announced that Humana is its first payer partner.

The series, part of a content partnership between HLTH and MedCity News, will share insights from executives from both public and private payer organizations based on developments and trends they’ve seen in the healthcare industry and what keeps them up at night.

The complaint alleges multiple violations of the Valentine Act, Ohio’s antitrust law, which prohibits price fixing, controlled sales and other agreements that restrain trade and hurt competition. David Yost, the attorney general decried the practices of PBMs saying that they hurt everyday Ohioans dependent on life-saving drugs like insulin.

Aledade — an independent primary care network focused on value-based care — struck a 10-year partnership with insurer Humana. Under the collaboration, Humana’s Medicare Advantage members will receive primary care from Aledade physicians using value-based arrangements.

Over the next 18 to 24 months, Humana will exit the Employer Group Commercial Medical Products business, which includes fully insured plans, self-funded plans and Federal Employee Health Benefit plans. The decision represents Humana’s move to double-down on its Medicare Advantage business, one expert said.

Wisdo, a social health platform that addresses loneliness and social isolation, teamed up with Humana to serve some of its Medicare Advantage members. A new study on Humana’s members found that 58% of participants reported lower rates of loneliness after three months of using Wisdo’s app.

The value-based partnership is for Humana Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO plan members with chronic kidney disease, who are living in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. These members can access Monogram’s specialized care resources, such as in-home primary and specialty care visits, medication management, dialysis and social services.

President of Humana’s primary care, Reneé Buckingham, addresses the needs of many seniors facing multiple diagnoses and barriers to high-quality care.

The key reasons for patient satisfaction with telehealth was having adequate facetime, the report said. Those who were ranked high spent enough time providing quality care, explained health concepts clearly and completely resolved medical issues on the first visit.

As part of its Envision U.S. Healthcare Summit, Microsoft conducted interviews with executives at Aetna CVS Health and Humana to highlight some of the ways these companies are adapting to consumerization of healthcare.

The insurers referred to deals Gilead struck with Janssen, Bristol Myers Squibb to prevent the generic version of its retroviral medications from being used as part of combination treatments. They also allege the company struck a deal with Teva to delay the release of its generic drug.

CMS is lowering the average premium for MA plans to $19 per month in 2022 from about $21 this year. The news comes as several insurers announce new MA plan offerings for 2022, including Humana, which said it will launch 72 plans.

SDoH is just one of the topics at the MedCity INVEST Digital Health conference, a virtual event scheduled for September 20-23, in collaboration with Medical Alley.

A little over half (55%) of Medicare Advantage plan members actively managed their care in the past year — a nine-percentage-point drop from 2019, according to a new report. This indicates that MA plans are faltering with regard to member engagement.

The hedge fund administrator SS&C Technologies Holdings will be the majority stakeholder, while the two payers will each hold a minority interest in the joint venture, dubbed DomaniRx. The company will develop a claims adjudication platform to support its operations.

After initially purchasing a 40% stake in Kindred at Home for $2.4 billion in 2018, Humana is now fully acquiring the home health and hospice provider for an additional $5.7 billion. The provider will transition to Humana’s payer-agnostic healthcare services brand CenterWell.

The partnership between the insurer and EHR giant — announced a year and a half ago — will now focus on streamlining prior authorizations and offering providers enhanced insights about their patients. Ochsner Health will be among the first to implement the new capabilities offered by the companies.

Nick Desai, the co-founder and CEO of Heal, announced he would step down on Tuesday. Scott Vertrees, an advisor to the company, will become the company’s new CEO.

The health system and payer are joining forces to offer Medicare Advantage patients access to Mercy’s telehealth center. They also plan to implement a value-based payment model, tying reimbursement for Mercy clinicians to care quality measures.

Through a new collaboration, Humana’s Employer Group members will gain access to IBM Watson Health’s AI-powered digital assistant. The chatbot will provide information on member benefits, claims, referrals and cost estimates for medical services.

Interest in home-based care is rising amid the Covid-19 pandemic. In line with this trend, Humana is joining forces with an in-home care provider to offer its members access to hospital-level care at home.

The payer-agnostic subsidiary, Partners in Primary Care, operates primary care centers for thousands of senior U.S. citizens. It has an aggressive growth strategy, with plans to open up to 20 new centers this year. The company is also on track to have 100 centers open by 2023.

The insurer picked digital health startup Vida to offer a virtual diabetes management program for Medicaid patients in Kentucky.

The newly created organization, dubbed OneTen, aims to create 1 million jobs for Black people over the next decade. Its founders include some big names in healthcare, such as Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare and Humana.

The technology company is partnering with major insurers, including Aetna and Humana, as well as providers like Ochsner Health to expand access to its platform that connects patients to community-based social services.

The Boston-based startup developed a symptom checker that can also help navigate users to care in their insurance network. Optum Ventures is also one of its backers.

In-home primary care startup Heal raised $100 million in funding, led by Humana. Heal plans to use the funds to expand into new markets and expand the breadth of services that it offers.

Humana will send 1 million screening kits to its members for managing diabetes and screening for colorectal cancer. The at-home tests are intended to offset screenings and other preventive care being pushed back due to Covid-19.