- Iowa: Aetna announced Thursday that it would no longer sell individual health insurance plans on Iowa's Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange next year. A spokesperson for the insurer said Aetna is exiting the exchange "as a result of financial risk and an uncertain outlook for the marketplace." According to Modern Healthcare, the company's decision could leave five counties in the state with only two insurers selling exchange plans—and the rest of the states' 99 counties will only having a single insurer (Livingston, Modern Healthcare, 4/6; Mangan/Coombs, CNBC, 4/6).
- Michigan: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan held a "Great-Gatsby" themed prom for an 18-year-old girl, Corinne Bass, who is spending her senior year battling aplastic anemia. Doctors and nurses who have treated the teenager over the past few months helped recreate the senior prom by decorating a hospital room, dressing up for the occasion, and even chauffeuring her from the hospitality house, where she is staying. Bass, who has undergone a bone marrow transplant, has to remain in isolation for the next few months—so hospital staff said they were working on how to throw her a graduation party when the time comes (Boudin, People, 4/6).
- New Mexico: New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) signed a bill making the state the first in the country to require that local and state law enforcement carry the overdose-reversal drug, naloxone. The measure, which was approved unanimously in the state Legislature, is intended to curb opioid- and heroin-related deaths (Montoya Bryan, AP/Sacramento Bee, 4/6).
Create a super-utilizer program
Every population health manager develops a strategy to manage high-risk, high-cost patients. Many of these super-utilizer programs start small, but as they expand, leaders take the opportunity to re-evaluate program design—from appropriate patient recruitment through graduation.
This guide offers a blueprint for implementing a super-utilizer program and measuring success across six steps.