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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.

Mar 25 2015

97% of ER doctors say they order imaging and tests of dubious value in order to avoid potential lawsuits.  The study in Academic Emergency Medicine says such unnecessary tests adds $210 billion in annual health spending.

http://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/doctor-news-206/most-er-doctors-surveyed-ordered-unnecessary-tests-697688.html
Mar 25 2015

Despite good information availability, an NBER paper finds that consumers don't pay adequate attention to Part D plan features and pricing and this costs them each $536 and Medicare $550 million over three years.  You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink, or maybe the horse doesn't know how to find the water or maybe they aren't sure how to drink or maybe its too many drugs, or something like that.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w21028?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw
Mar 24 2015

According to a study in the Journal of Health Economics, the extended dependent coverage provisions under the reform law added 2.5% to 2.8% to employer plan premiums, much of which was passed on to employees.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629615000053
Mar 24 2015

Everyday Health, the consumer medical information website, is buying Cambridge BioMarketing, which helps drug companies with marketing for rare disease medications.

http://www.mmm-online.com/everyday-health-buys-rare-disease-agency-cambridge-biomarketing/article/404966/
Mar 24 2015

Zeomega, a population health management company, has acquired HealthUnity, which helps with interoperability and data-sharing across provider, payer and other information systems.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150323005911/en/ZeOmega-Acquires-HealthUnity-Creating-Healthcare’s-End-to-End-Interoperability#.VRF00ly4mi5
Mar 24 2015

A private-equity firm has acquired Pediatric Services, which provides home care for medically fragile children, for an undisclosed amount.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/03/j-h-whitney-acquires-psa-healthcare/
Mar 24 2015

Further to medicine is still not fully evidence-based, pathologists have a wider variance in diagnosing disease from tissue samples than you might think, according to a study in JAMA.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2203798
Mar 24 2015

In a move they hope doesn't go pear-shaped or look too fruity, investors have given an undisclosed amount of capital to Pear Therapeutics, which makes "digital health interventions" designed to enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals, with an initial focus on brain disorders, such as making illogical investment choices.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/03/5am-ventures-backs-ehealth-startup-pear-therapeutics/
Mar 23 2015

Hospital chain Tenet Healthcare is buying a majority stake in United Surgical partners, which operates ambulatory surgery centers, for $425 million,  and separately is buying Aspen Healthcare, which operates hospitals and clinics in the UK, for $215 million.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/03/tenet-healthcare-to-buy-uspi-and-aspen-healthcare-from-welsh-carson/
Mar 23 2015

Select Medical, backed by a PE firm, is buying the Concentra unit of Humana for over $1 billion.  Concentra operates urgent care and workers' comp clinics.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150323/NEWS/150329983?utm_source=modernhealthcare&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150323-NEWS-150329983&utm_campaign=mh-alert
Mar 22 2015

More problems with quality measures, serious concern has been raised about CMS using AHRQ composite patient safety indicator PSI-90 in its value-based purchasing program.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2109967
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