CIGNA Corporation announced in January that the managed care company will lay off more than 3,000 workers from many areas of its health care division. Call centers handling managed care accounts will not be directly affected according to the company statement announcing the cuts. Costs saving initiatives were also implemented last year. CIGNA has indicated that the cuts from last year and this year will save the company almost $100 million in 2003. CIGNA is the third health insurer to announce cutbacks in recent months. Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Humana Inc. also have announced they are cutting jobs. For an AMEDNEWS article on the cuts please go to http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_03/bisd0127.htm.

A controversial new rule by the Bush administration seeks to allow states to restrict how often most Medicaid patients may visit hospital emergency rooms. According to the Washington Post, “the new rule rewrites a basic protection the government has for years given every Medicaid patient in managed care as states have increasingly entrusted care of the poor to HMOs and other private health plans.” The article also noted that “three-fifths of the 37 million Americans on Medicaid are enrolled in some form of managed care.” Consumer groups have vowed to fight the change in policy. For the entire article, please go to http://www.ama-assn.org. For additional information concerning HMO litigation, please visit the HMO Crisis Newsroom