What will President Bush’s second term look like on the healthcare front?
Norman Ornstein, a political pundit, TV commentator and resident scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank, returns to discuss Bush’s healthcare policy at the University of California, Irvine’s annual Health Care Forecast Conference.
The conference runs Feb. 24 and 25 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering on UCI’s campus.
The university’s Graduate School of Management’s Health Care Center for Management and Policy sponsors the conference. Discussions will focus on the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the impact of California’s state budget issues on healthcare and a strategic outlook on the healthcare market, among other topics.
Others set to speak include California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi; Howard Phanstiel, chief executive of Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc.; C. Duane Dauner, president of the California Healthcare Association, a hospital trade group; David Gollaher, president of the California Healthcare Institute, which represents device and biotech companies; and Sheryl Skolnick, an outspoken managed care analyst and managing director of Fulcrum Global Partners LLC in New York.
Meanwhile, another big event is set for Jan. 10-12 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Medical Design and Manufacturing West 2005 trade show is touted by organizers as one of the larger medical device-related gatherings in the U.S.
Contract medical device manufacturers are the event’s primary exhibitors and attendees. Some of the better-known names expected there are units of Baxter International Inc., B. Braun Medical Inc., Cardinal Health, Dow Corning Corp., Motorola Inc., Steris Corp., and Tyco International Ltd.
Local participants include Avail Medical Products Inc., which has a contract device manufacturing operation in Santa Ana.
Breakout session topics include marketing medical devices in the U.S., an international regulatory update, risk management for medical devices and understanding causes of failure in medical devices.
Mental Challenge
Mental healthcare needs to focus on measurable results, according to Edward Jones, vice president and chief clinical officer of Santa Ana-based PacifiCare Behavioral Health, part of PacifiCare Health Systems.
Jones, in a presentation to the National Managed Behavioral Health Care Forum, said that increasing health costs demands that managed mental healthcare companies develop clinical strategies that show return on investment and value to payers and members.
At the presentation, Jones discussed PacifiCare Behavioral’s Alert, which measures and reports on the quality of care its members receive.
More than 140,000 of PacifiCare Behavioral’s patients receiving outpatient treatment to date have participated in Alert, which uses self-reporting questionnaires given at multiple points during psychotherapy.
TriZetto to Click
TriZetto Group Inc., a Newport Beach-based health information technology provider, got a shot in the arm on Wall Street earlier this month, thanks to an analyst upgrade.
The company’s shares rose nearly 16% to $7.9 after Ryan Stewart, who follows the company for US Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, upgraded it to outperform from market perform.
Stewart upgraded TriZetto after the company said it planned to buy back more than 12 million of its shares held by IMS Health Inc., a rival based in Fairfield, Conn. TriZetto said it would pay $6.75 for each share held by IMS.
Stewart said the key to the upgrade is that “the IMS overhang is being safely removed from the TriZetto story.”
US Bancorp views TriZetto “as the best payer-IT investment for 2005,” Stewart said in his note. “Its core claims processing system, add-on claims repricing capabilities and new ‘direct connect’ (product) are wholly aligned with the day-to-day needs and demands of the nation’s payers.”
He also said rivals such as WebMD Corp., Elmwood Park, N.J., and Atlanta-based ProxyMed Inc., were struggling to establish what he called “a long-term value proposition across the payer space.”
The stock buyback wasn’t the only thing Stewart likes about TriZetto,he said his action also was warranted on recent contracts with PacifiCare, Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc., and Minneapolis-based United HealthGroup Inc.
Big in Japan
A medical testing machine jointly developed by Beckman Coulter Inc., Fullerton, and Fuji Photo Film Co. of Japan stoked investor interest on the Tokyo Stock Exchange earlier this month. The machine, which will go on the market in spring, is designed to isolate nucleic acids and is expected to attract various users in life science and medical fields. Separately, Beckman presented at the Informed Investors Biotechnology and Healthcare Stocks forum in Foster City earlier this month.
Bits and Pieces:
Dallas Salisbury, chief executive of the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C., is the featured speaker at the Jan. 20 meeting of the Orange County Employee Benefit Council. The program runs from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center. Seating is limited,members get priority. Information: (714) 573-8605 … Castells & Asociados, Los Angeles, launched an advertising campaign aimed at Orange County members of Salud con Health Net, a Latino-geared health plan developed by Health Net Inc. of Woodland Hills. The bilingual campaign includes print and direct mail advertising … CareMore Insurance Services, a Cerritos-based company that offers its Medicare health plan in Placentia, Westminster and Yorba Linda, said it was one of 54 Medicare HMOs in the U.S. to receive an award from HealthMetrix Research Inc., an independent managed care research organization. HealthMetrix rates plans for seniors based on cost.
