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.

Sep 21 2015

Medicare requires a three-day hospital stay to get coverage for subsequent skilled nursing care, which seems silly, and research published in Health Affairs shows no difference in number of admissions or length of stay at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities between Medicare Advantage plans that enforce the rule and those that waive it.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/8/1324.abstract
Sep 21 2015

Universal Health Services, a large hospital chain, is buying Foundations Recovery Network, an addiction treatment firm, for $350 million.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-universal-health-services-buying-foundations-for-350m-2015-9?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=22185080&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_6mP52dacF0bQacAC84HyM824yKuK_Qba5pzZQ3-nQtinjkyD2HpdXXYi6_qT5fqWj-REss0vYGY4yQtYrVuwu_UJfsGniQM0Z2hsjv3HfLygw9-k&_hsmi=22185080
Sep 21 2015

DaVita, through its troubled HealthCare Partners division, is buying the Everett Clinic, a large Washington state physician group.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_28848150/davita-to-buy-seattlearea-primary-specialty-physicians-group?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=22185080&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9JE_8Rud5lT9MW8J9EGVVopLdzPcc1p-VVM9wsYa90HNsNXeywEMeNfkT-8x-H8p8ARXUIxk4FVkihKe-tJzG9p5dzKu3GdHmjvHVeCU-4fedxgbM&_hsmi=22185080
Sep 21 2015

A SullivanCotter survey finds that primary care physician compensation increased 3.4% in 2015 and specialty physician compensation by 2.3%, with urgent care and psychiatry seeing the largest increases and anesthesiology, radiology and neurology the lowest.  Orthopedic surgeons had the highest compensation.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/compensation-issues/2015-physician-total-cash-compensation-by-specialty.html
Sep 18 2015

Everything is coming up roses for Clover Health, lucky as can be with a $100 million fundraising for its "data-driven health plan" model for Medicare members.  We will see how lucky the investors are feeling in a couple of years.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/17/clover-health-a-data-driven-health-insurance-startup-raises-100m/#.oqnxb8:j4fd
Sep 18 2015

Iora Health adds $20 million more in capital to increase the expansion of its primary care clinic focused model.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/09/iora-health-raises/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=bf61e8fece-MCN+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5092836c41-bf61e8fece-408793005
Sep 18 2015

Investors have poured $25 million into Kyruus, which offers hospitals patient access and referral management software.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/09/kyruus-nabs-25-mln/
Sep 18 2015

VillageMD, which supplies technology and knowledge to help primary care providers effectively manage Medicare and dual-eligible populations, has raised $36 million in fresh capital.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/09/villagemd-racks-up-36-mln-series-a/
Sep 18 2015

Research published in Health Affairs finds that HSA use is concentrated among high income households and large employers, duh.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/9/1594.abstract
Sep 17 2015

A PE firm is buying Ontario Systems, which makes revenue cycle management software for providers.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/09/arlington-capital-buys-ontario-systems/
Sep 17 2015

Epion Health, a supplier of patient intake software, has raised somewhere around $7 million in new financing.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/09/epion-health-raises-follow-on-funding-to-scale-business-for-new-provider-customers/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=af24b3b3a1-MCN+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5092836c41-af24b3b3a1-408793005
Sep 17 2015

Clockwise MD decided its time to raise some funds, without a second to lose, getting  a minute $1 million to support its software to help patients and providers identify wait times.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/09/clockwisemd-raises-1m/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=37502e64e0-MCN+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5092836c41-37502e64e0-408793005
Sep 17 2015

A study in Health Affairs suggests that the neighborhood you grow up in likely has little association with your risk for developing certain chronic diseases, suggesting that early interventions are not likely to be efficacious in reducing prevalence of these diseases.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/9/1472.abstract?=right