Accomplished Health Care Executive to Help Further Castlights Engagement with Leading Employers and Health Plans.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 10, 2013

With a wealth of experience in the health care industry, Tracy brings a strong vision and key relationships to Castlight, said John Driscoll, Castlight Health president. As a special advisor, Tracy will help us evolve how we engage and partner with health plans and employers, making access to critical health care cost and quality information a reality for more Americans.

Bahl has a proven track record of success advising and leading health care companies. Bahl currently serves as a special advisor to global growth equity firm General Atlantic where he focuses on health care-related activities. Previously, Bahl served as CEO for Uniprise, a UnitedHealth Group Company, where he advanced the companys position as the leading provider of health care solutions to large employers and led the companys technology, service and consumer health care operations. He also has served as Executive Chairman of Emdeon and held senior executive positions at CIGNA HealthCare.

Health Care Transparency is changing the way we experience and consume health care for the better, said Bahl. Castlight has already made an indelible impact on the industry, and Im excited to be working with the Castlight team to further expand its business and partnerships.

Based on increasing demand for Health Care Transparency solutions, Castlight continues to experience incredible growth. In 2012, Castlight added significant new leaders to its management team. Over the past year, Castlight also secured $100 million in funding and was named one of the top emerging health care companies by the Wall Street Journal.

About Castlight Health

Castlight Health enables employers, their employees, and health plans to take control of health care costs and improve care. Named #1 on The Wall Street Journals list of The Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies for 2011 and one of Dow Jones 50 Most Investment-Worthy Technology Start-Ups, Castlight Health helps the countrys self-insured employers and health plans empower consumers to shop for health care. Castlight Health is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by prominent investors including Allen & Company, Cleveland Clinic, Maverick Capital, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Oak Investment Partners, Redmile Group, T. Rowe Price, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock, Wellcome Trust and two unnamed mutual funds. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.castlighthealth.com or call (415) 829-1400.

Drew Smith Blanc & Otus 415-856-5127 Email Information

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Health Care Industry Veteran Tracy Bahl Joins Castlight Health as a Special Advisor

MVP and employees partner with American Red Cross to help families recover from Hurricane Sandy.

Schenectady, NY (PRWEB) January 10, 2013

I am so proud of how Team MVP came together to help with this effort, said Denise V. Gonick, MVPs President and CEO. Seeing so much devastation on the news and knowing our members, friends and neighbors were affected by the storm inspired our coworkers to give generously.

MVP partnered with the American Red Cross in November on an online donation program for MVP coworkers and pledged to match employee donations up to $10,000. In the first two weeks, MVP employees donated $6,781.

By early December, it was clear the situation in the hurricane zone was far from resolved. Denise Landi, a MVP Clinical Review Coordinator who lives on Long Island, shared her experience of the storm with her coworkers.

This wasnt just a power outage, this was brutal. It was a nightmare, Landi said. Trees lifted up entire front lawns and crashed into houses. I have friends who watched their oil heater go floating down the street. Though Landis home was spared from flooding, she knew many people who lost everything to the powerful storm.

Employee donations continued to come in during December, totaling $11,531. With MVPs match, the grand total donated to the American Red Cross was $21,531.

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About MVP Health Care

Founded in 1983, MVP Health Care is a community-focused, not-for-profit health insurer serving members in the states of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. Through its operating subsidiaries, MVP Health Care provides fully-insured and self-funded employer health benefits plans, dental insurance, and ancillary products, such as flexible-spending accounts, to more than 650,000 members. For more information, visit http://www.mvphealthcare.com.

Continued here:

MVP Health Care and Employees Raise $21,531 for Hurricane Sandy Relief

By Brian Orelli | More Articles January 11, 2013 |

JPMorgan's health care conference is a treasure-trove of information about health care companies. From basic information to fourth quarter sales, even a few deals are signed, sealed, and announced at JPMorgan.

But the most interesting -- both entertaining and educational -- part of the meeting happened virtually when attendees and remote observers of the conference piled onto a Twitter hashtag, #jpmpickuplines, scientifically mocking what an attendee might say to pick up someone at the hotel bar.

"Best set of data points I've seen all year," tweeted San Francisco Business Times reporter Ron Leuty who started the meme.

The top one -- as measured by retweets -- came from Roche's official Genentech Twitter account that tweeted, "Nice antibody. Wanna conjugate?"

Educational? The meme is clearly entertaining -- well at least most of them, some got a little raunchy -- and it highlights that investors and companies can have a little fun. Investing may be serious, but it doesn't have to be stuffy.

But the list of pickup lines also serves as a nice glossary of terms that every biotech investor should know. Genentech's tweet, for example, refers to the process of adding drugs to antibodies so the drug can be targeted to specific cells. Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) and ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: IMGN) have both developed technologies to produce antibody-drug candidates; Roche's T-DM1 was developed using ImmunoGen's technology.

Here are a few more that contain terms you should know:

There are plenty more, have a look and if you find any that you just don't get, it might be time for a little education to make you a better biotech investor. Just don't try using them at the bar.

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The Most Interesting Thing at JPMorgan's Health Care Conference

BOSTON (AP) -- Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick plans to propose legislation calling for sweeping changes in future retiree health care benefits for state and municipal employees that officials estimate will save up to $20 billion over the next 30 years.

The changes would include raising the number of years an employee needs to be vested in the retiree health care system, cut the state's contribution to health care premiums for many workers, and raise the eligibility age for health benefits from 55 to 60 for most employees, according to an administration official knowledgeable about the report. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report had not yet been made public.

The recommendations are to be included in a report due for release Friday by a special commission studying what many in government view as unsustainable costs for retiree health care.

The proposed changes would not affect any of the current 75,000 retired state employees, spouses or survivors who receive health care benefits, or about twice that number of retired municipal workers.

But current state and municipal employees would be affected with some exceptions, such as a worker who currently has completed at least 20 years of service and is within five years of retirement.

According to the commission, Massachusetts faces an unfunded liability for retiree health care and other non-pension benefits totaling more than $46 billion approximately $16.7 billion for the state and $30 billion for cities and towns. The liability exceeds the state's unfunded pension obligations, and according to the report the state and most cities and towns have not set aside adequate resources to cover health care liabilities.

Among the key recommendations that will be included in the legislation, according to the administration official, is raising the minimum years of service an employee must have before being vested in the retiree health care system from the current 10 years to 20 years.

The state currently contributes 80 percent of the health care premium for all vested retirees, but that too would change for many workers in the future. Retirees with 20 years of service would be eligible for a 50 percent premium contribution from the state, rising on a prorated basis for each year of service up to 30 years, when a retiree would become eligible for the full state contribution.

The same proposed changes would apply for municipalities, though some currently pay a lower share of the premiums for retirees.

The minimum age for eligibility to receive retiree health care benefits would also rise from 55 to 60, though it would be lower for some workers, such as police and firefighters, who can retire at younger ages.

More here:

Massachusetts to revamp retiree health care

CORPUS CHRISTI Coastal Bend residents could get better access to primary care doctors, specialty care doctors and mental health services, as well as more comprehensive care for the chronically ill, under a new federal financing system the state is implementing.

Area health care providers have submitted proposals for $312 million worth of projects aimed at transforming the way they care for uninsured and other uncompensated patients.

The projects were submitted as part of the Medicaid waiver the state received, which could draw $29 billion for statewide health care providers during the next five years.

The waiver replaces the old financing system in which health care providers received reimbursements for the amount of uncompensated care they provided. Under the new system, some federal dollars will continue to reimburse for uncompensated care but other dollars will go toward projects that cut the cost of health care and improve the quality.

Driscoll Children's Hospital, for example, has proposed expanding some already successful programs, including the Oral Health Project, which provides low-income children with preventive dental care.

"For some of these young kids, it helps reduce incidents of oral health disease that, if you didn't take care of, would have to be treated with surgery," said Eric Hamon, the hospital's vice president and chief financial officer.

Hamon said the new financing system, which will tie money to good patient outcomes and cost efficiency, give health care providers more flexibility in how they treat their patients.

"You tailor the care to the population you serve," he said. "This allows us to specifically carve out, not only what's best for our region, but for the children of South Texas."

Local health care providers picked their projects based on the community's health needs.

The Coastal Bend has an inadequate number of primary and specialty care providers, high numbers of uninsured, inadequate access to behavioral health services and high prevalence of chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes, according to the region's plan.

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Area health care providers propose projects to improve care, cut costs with new federal financing system