A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that the primary cause of greater health spending in the US than in other countries is high prices.
Read More
A study suggests flaws in Medicare's value-based purchasing program component relating to average beneficiary spending.
Read More
Study in Health Affairs suggests little benefit flows from community health improvement programs.
Read More
A poll from the University of Michigan finds that many consumers believe doctors deliver unnecessary care.
Read More
An article at the Kaiser Family Foundation website discusses issues and research regarding surgery at the end-of-life.
Read More
In yet another massive attempt to remake the health system, or at least change your declining fortunes, Cigna is buying PBM Express Scripts for $67 billion. This makes Cigna more like UnitedHealth and Aetna, if the CVS merger goes thru, in having a substantial stake in the pharmaceutical game, and it will whack UnitedHealth's OptumRx unit, as it currently works for Cigna.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/health-insurer-cigna-is-close-to-buying-express-scripts.htmlResearch in the British Journal of Medicine Quality & Safety examines physician reactions to medication alerts from clinical health information systems.
Read More
Innovation, which has struggled to find profitability, is acquiring Ability Network, which provides various communication and administrative functionality for providers and payers, for a whopping $1.2 billion.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/03/07/1417432/0/en/Inovalon-to-Acquire-ABILITY-Network.htmlAbout this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.