In the second part of our review of the Kaiser health benefits report, we focus on plans offered and employee uptake.
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Another one of the health plan co-ops created by the reform law bites the dust, as New York regulators close down Health Republic Insurance for insolvency. How's that "these co-ops will provide inexpensive competition to the big guys" rationale working out? And how should taxpayers feel as their tax dollars circle the drain when these co-ops don't repay their loans, which by the way totaled $265 million for Health Republic.
http://www.dfs.ny.gov/about/press/pr1509251.htmThe Kaiser Foundation has released its outstanding annual survey of employers in regard to health benefits.
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A blog post in Health Affairs underscores that individual practice variation across physicians may be the most basic unit of health care utilization and cost variation. This variation is likely driven both by physician practice styles and preferences and patient preferences.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2015/09/23/physician-level-practice-variation-who-you-see-is-what-you-get/The latest Institute of Medicine report regarding health care quality explores diagnosis issues.
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Someone needs to explain health insurance to Hillary Clinton. In a supposed effort to help middle-income voters, er, I mean people, she proposes to limit copays on doctor visits. All this will do is drive up insurance premiums and increase consumer premium cost-sharing. There is no free ride.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-health-care-affordability-plan-213982Research carried in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds a modest benefit from a text message-based intervention to help manage risk factors related to heart disease.
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A presentation at an Altarum Institute Conference gives a good summary of new approaches to reimbursement.
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