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.

Dec 16 2015

Standard & Poor's says health plans are all losing lots of money on the insurance exchange business.

https://www.globalcreditportal.com/ratingsdirect/renderArticle.do?articleId=1551800&SctArtId=360292&from=CM&nsl_code=LIME&sourceObjectId=9444273&sourceRevId=4&fee_ind=N&exp_date=20251214-20:14:33?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKXKe%2B%2FhmjTEU5z17e8oXKS2lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DT8FgN6%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7LMKM1ty9MQWxTk
Dec 15 2015

Schooling the market, Edumedics teaches us something about fund-raising, getting $4.2 million for its chronic condition care management program.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/12/care-management-startup-edumedics-raises-4-2m/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=82934035b8-MCN+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5092836c41-82934035b8-408793005
Dec 14 2015

And in yet another study in Health Affairs indicating the harms of hospital consolidation of medical services, ambulatory surgery centers raised prices much less in the last few years than did hospital outpatient departments providing the same services.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/10/1753.abstract
Dec 14 2015

Research published in Health Affairs confirms that less physician competition is associated with significantly higher unit prices.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/10/1753.abstract
Dec 14 2015

More from the maybe we don't really know what we think we know department; after decades of complaining about excessive Cesarean deliveries, new research published in JAMA indicates that higher rates of such deliveries are associated with lower baby and mother mortality.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2473490
Dec 14 2015

RiverMend Health raises $60 million in fresh capital for its behavioral health, eating disorder, etc. services.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/12/rivermend-health-raises-60-mln/
Dec 13 2015

2014 national health spending according to CMS Office of the Actuary

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2015/11/25/hlthaff.2015.1194
Dec 13 2015

Latest release of fact-packed Sanofi Managed Care Digests.

https://www.managedcaredigest.com/default.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fdigestselector.aspx
Dec 11 2015

According to the Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research specialty drug costs will continue to climb in the next few years.

http://www.hcsupplychainresearch.org/press/20151202.asp
Dec 11 2015

PE firm Audax is buying Active Day Senior Care, which operates 80 senior day care centers across the country.  Gee, we start our lives in day care and we can end them there too, how wonderful.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/12/golub-in-loan-that-backs-audaxs-buy-of-active-day-senior-care/
Dec 10 2015

According to results of a survey published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, burnout among doctors is increasing, as is dissatisfaction with work/life balance.  Half of physicians express burnout and dissatisfaction.

http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196%2815%2900716-8/pdf