New Today at AISHealth.com

New AIS Products

IMPLEMENTING ‘MEDICAL HOMES’ TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE AND THE BOTTOM LINE: STEPS THAT HEALTH PLANS AND PROVIDERS SHOULD TAKE, a 90-minute audioconference on May 21, 2008. Hear two of the nation’s top Medical Home experts — Joe Gifford, M.D., senior medical director of The Regence Group, and Pranav Kothari, M.D., co-founder of Renaissance Health  — describe sensible first steps that health plans and providers could take to create, partner with and reward Medical Home practices. ($329)

HEALTH REFORM & THE 2008 ELECTIONS: WHAT’S AHEAD FOR HEALTH CARE ACCESS, DELIVERY AND FINANCING? a two-day conference on Capitol Hill, July 10-11, 2008. Hear directly from key policy makers on potential health reforms that could have implications for everyone from patient to payer. Featuring Senators Jay Rockefeller, Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden, and Congressmen Dave Camp, Charles Rangel, Pete Stark and Henry Waxman; plus panels of: top health aides for Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama; leaders of influential health care organizations; experts from four Washington think tanks; and health policy advisors from California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Vermont. ($1,150)

MANAGED MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FACTBOOK: 2008, a valuable resource packed with rates, benefit designs, directories, trends and strategies on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program and managed Medicaid. Features coverage of the overhauled Medicare program, including new payment rates, and practical information on the Part D drug benefit, Special Needs Plans, MA private fee-for-service, and much more. Written and organized by AIS's experienced health reporting staff. ($418) CD version also available.

AIS’s DIRECTORY OF HEALTH PLANS: 2008, the most comprehensive resource available on the U.S. health plan market — more than 500 pages of thoroughly researched and verified information. It contains the most up-to-date enrollment data and contact information for health plans and primary care preferred provider networks operating in the U.S. Database also available on CD. ($622)

2000-2007 SURVEY RESULTS: PHARMACY BENEFIT TRENDS & DATA, a valuable book and CD resource that features the complete results — plus analyses — of AIS’s quarterly survey of pharmacy benefit management companies, from the first quarter of 2000 to the second quarter of 2007. It contains hundreds of charts, tables and graphs on costs, benefit design, utilization and PBM market share, plus a complete directory of PBMs, PBAs, SPPs and related companies. An accompanying CD contains all of the raw survey data in spreadsheet form. ($1,175)

HEALTH PLAN PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE PROGRAMS: THE NEXT GENERATION explores the dramatic change in the scope and depth of pay-for-performance (P4P) programs during the past several years. This book looks at such trends as P4P programs with specialist physicians and PPOs, P4P programs with hospitals and programs geared toward specific diseases, and also contains three case studies from well-respected health insurers. ($124)

AIS’s PHARMACY BENEFIT SURVEY RESULTS, a unique resource containing the raw data from AIS’s quarterly survey of PBMs — that tracks growth and consolidation in the industry, and trends in costs, utilization and benefit design. Every four months, a new Excel spreadsheet is available to download, and includes data such as contact information, annual gross revenues, number of clients, number of prescriptions filled per year, and much more. ($150 per quarter)

EXPANDING MARKET SHARE: A GUIDE TO BLUES PLAN STRATEGIES AND ALLIANCES is a report on the latest strategies and techniques used by Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to develop and market insurance products — and how these benefit designs are helping to keep Blues plans among the nation’s most recognized and competitive insurers. It includes details of Blues plans in individual, small-group, middle-market and national accounts; expansion efforts in market segments at state, multi-state and national levels; Blues’ strategies for state health reform efforts; and alliances created to capitalize on federal programs like TRICARE, Medicare and Medicaid. ($84) PDF version also available.

PBM CONTRACTING AND TRANSPARENCY ISSUES AND MODELS examines which contracting strategies have been successful, and which have failed or have contributed to confusion among pharmacy benefit clients. It details the decisions that factored into many contract negotiations, both in the public and private sectors, and pays particular attention to the role of transparency in these negotiations. ($84) PDF version also available.

SPECIAL NEEDS PLANS: MARKET STRATEGIES AND DATA follows the evolution and growth of Medicare Special Needs Plans (SNPs) from their introduction in 2004 to their current boom — and questions about their future. The report features a comprehensive directory of SNPs with enrollment data, plus insight into health plans' decisions to expand their SNP operations, and their subsequent successes or roadblocks — including cost, compliance and marketing strategies. ($69) PDF version available.

MEDICARE PART D: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF CMS RULES distills from thousands of pages of CMS regulations and guidance the major rules, guidelines and deadlines you need to comprehend the complex Medicare drug benefit program. It includes nine detailed chapters on sponsors, eligibility and enrollment, formularies, CMS enforcement and much more. ($124)