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.

May 02 2015

A preliminary release from Aon gives an expected medical and pharmacy trend for employers of 5.4% in 2015 and 5.9% in 2016, driven higher by pharmacy costs that are estimated to increase 9.5% in 2015 and 10% in 2016.

http://aon.mediaroom.com/2015-04-20-Aon-Analysis-Shows-Double-Digit-Increases-in-U-S-Pharmacy-Costs-by-2016
May 02 2015

A study in Health Services Research finds that creating hospital network tiers with differential copays can cause hospitals to lower prices and for more admissions to occur in preferred tiers.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-6773.12291/abstract
May 02 2015

MD Insider has raised $9.5 million to compete in the commodity market of offering price and quality information about physicians and other providers.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/05/md-insider-playing-physician-data-transparency-war-win/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c727044440-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-c727044440-67677117
Apr 30 2015

Arsenal Health has armed itself with additional capital to help providers improve the scheduling process by using data to predict dropped appointments.

https://rockhealth.com/2015/04/expanding-footprint-three-new-east-coast-investments-new-office/
Apr 30 2015

Private equity firm Francisco Partners is acquiring HealthcareSource, a provider of talent management services for health care companies.

https://www.pehub.com/2015/04/francisco-partners-to-acquire-healthcaresource/
Apr 30 2015

2016 Draft Medicare Hospital Rule

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/04/30/2015-09245/medicare-program-hospital-inpatient-prospective-payment-systems-for-acute-care-hospitals-and-the
Apr 29 2015

In a tie-up of two India-based mobile health and fitness app companies, Practo iso acquiringo FitHo foro ano undisclosedo sumo.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-04-25/news/61518547_1_abhinav-lal-shashank-nd-practo
Apr 29 2015

HEALTHCAREfirst, has capitalized on its position by acquiring a lower-case company, Deyta. HEALTHCAREfirst provides software for home health agencies and hospices and Deyta offers patient satisfaction and quality measurement services for the same market.

http://www.deyta.com/news/healthcarefirst-announces-acquisition-of-deyta
Apr 29 2015

Validic (not to be confused with Vladic, the pickle company, although investors may find themselves in a pickle) has garnered an additional $12.5 million in capital to validate its "internet of things" approach to health care.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/04/internet-things-enabler-validic-raises-12-5m-add-staff-support-product-development/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4420891e28-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-4420891e28-67648197
Apr 29 2015

Telemedicine pioneer TelaDoc has apparently rung up an IPO filing, on as yet undisclosed terms.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/04/teladoc-takes-first-step-toward-ipo/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4420891e28-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-4420891e28-67648197
Apr 29 2015

An Asian firm called DocDoc has raised $8.6 million to help expatriates find health care by using a mobile app.

http://medcitynews.com/2015/04/physician-scheduling-service-targets-expats-se-asia/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4420891e28-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-4420891e28-67648197
Apr 28 2015

1DocWay has received an investment from Rock Health to advance its business of helping hospitals do telepsychiatry visits.

https://rockhealth.com/2015/04/expanding-footprint-three-new-east-coast-investments-new-office/