Physicians in GCC countries - and UAE in particular - are ordering more tests than can be justified by clinical pathways and guidelines. It's a practice known as laddering, and it's costing insurance companies in the Middle East a fortune.
There's a crisis in healthcare insurance in which traditional players face being squeezed out by large tech-savvy players entering the market and cozying up to providers. But there are also opportunities for insurers willing to embrace change quickly. Healthcare Europa was at the 9th Global Health Insurance Conference in Amsterdam at the end of last month talking to delegates to find out more.
For-profit healthcare data platform the IVBAR Institute, which works for both payors and operators to analyse patient outcomes, is moving out of its native Sweden. We look at its business model and expansion plans.
US insurer United Health has agreed a friendly deal to buy Banmedica, the integrated payor provider that covers Chile and has moved into Colombia and Peru. The deal values Banmedica's equity at US$2.8bn.
Colombia has universal and generally well respected public healthcare coverage, yet there are still millions who take out private insurance. Healthcare Nova talks to Wilson Mayora Mogollon, who is responsible for healthcare at Fasecolda, the body which represents private insurance companies, to find out more about the market.
Contreras gives an overview of private healthcare services sector in Mexico. He highlights prospects in the low cost sector which is aiming squarely at the majority of Mexicans. And he also looks at imaging, labs, outsourcing and the established players. As an investor, how does he expect the sector to develop over the next five years?
Dr Damien Marmion gives his personal views on the advent of connected healthcare, big data, analytics are a challenge and an opportunity for private medical insurers. In addition we all have an increasing need for better outcomes in terms of customer quality and affordability. Damien looks at the issues payors in general face before outlining solutions.
The relationship between payors and providers is changing rapidly. In the USA, Aetna has already moved to a partnership model in which large providers are paid on a per capita basis, rather than by activity. Meanwhile, new apps are creating a much more direct relationship between insurers and patients. These enable remote diagnosis and enables the payor to steer patients to the most suitable provider. Di Benedetto looks at these changes and at how Aetna plans to roll them out worldwide.
Debate is raging in Holland about the power of the large insurance companies that manage compulsory healthcare insurance, and the level of own-risk that patients should bear.
It is one year since Nordics company Norlandia, which runs nursing homes and social care units in Norway, Sweden and Finland, appointed its new CEO Yngvar Tov Herbjørnssønn. Healthcare Europa chats with him about the group's relationship with municipalities, international expansion and changes in the long-term care market in the region.
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