All Posts By

Kevin Roche

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 through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

Oct 17 2016

A study published in the British Medical Journal finds that physicians' recommendations given closer to when a decision must be made are more likely to influence a patient to choose a course of action against the patient's own preferences.  To ensure respect for patient preferences this suggests that doctors should give any recommendations early in the process.

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/9/e011282.abstract
Oct 17 2016

Primary care clinic operator Iora Health has raised $75 million in new capital for expansion purposes.

http://medcitynews.com/2016/10/iora-health-raises-75m-series-d/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=35900867&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-95twCnxR7anLRoUaDSh-CL_hbGyS2e-GQdOLHpck3ASWy4VfbQr0Xcl6CDqoWRiC-QR546mkYK9FJ_BynmgkQYjjx07OobyrgNyUIWIP0e6hYooag&_hsmi=35900867
Oct 14 2016

Contessa Health, a vendor of home hospitalization and risk payment services, has received $7 million in new funding.

https://www.pehub.com/2016/10/contessa-health-snags-7-mln/
Oct 12 2016

2016 Kaiser Employer Health Benefits Survey

http://kff.org/health-costs/report/2016-employer-health-benefits-survey/
Oct 12 2016

Evidation Health has evidently grabbed $15 million in fresh funding for its "machine learning" "behavioral analytics" tools.  If you built it, they might come, but they sure won't understand it.

https://www.pehub.com/2016/10/evidation-health-scores-15-mln/
Oct 11 2016

Another study finds that live human doctors do much, much better at diagnosing than do symptom checker apps.

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/it/face-off-human-doctors-more-accurate-than-symptom-checker-apps?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpNMk1UQXlaakpqTmpRdyIsInQiOiJRSXZVZ0JTcDd3U3N0RUppR0UrRTlKNGRNTFozQWNNNEMyRzNRU0VyNHYwM3F2Z3BNTVlOclQ0VDR0QWhnc1VPdGhlXC9CS2Z1UFg5cFBQVE9obzZSWnBkamlKMFRvRG5raEZuVHFDVEhYcFU9In0%3D&mrkid=635530&utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
Oct 11 2016

The 2017 final Medicare hospital reimbursement rule.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/08/22/2016-18476/medicare-program-hospital-inpatient-prospective-payment-systems-for-acute-care-hospitals-and-the
Oct 11 2016

Deloitte surveyed a number of physicians on EHR use, finding that about half think they help with clinical outcomes, but the majority saying that EHRs raise practice costs and reduce productivity.

http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/ehr/physician-survey-ehrs-increase-practice-costs-little-improvement-clinical-outcomes
Oct 11 2016

Teleradiology firm Arris Radiology is buying competitor US Teleradiology.

https://www.pehub.com/2016/10/gpp-backed-aris-radiology-buys-ust/