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.

Jul 23 2014

A survey by The Associated Press confirms that most Americans have little faith in their ability to select doctors based on quality, with only 22% saying they are confident they can find and use quality information to compare physicians.  Sixty percent rely on friends and family.  Only 4% think they get poor quality care, contrary to what research suggests.  Most judge doctors on characteristics like friendliness and listening.  And having insurance coverage for a particular doctor is very important.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/doctors-check-vitals-check-24637964?singlePage=true
Jul 23 2014

LifeNexus, which offers a method for patients to maintain and access health records, has received a multi-million dollar investment from Camden Partners.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/07/camden-partners-leads-series-a-round-for-lifenexus/
Jul 22 2014

Health Insurance Innovations, a company offering health plan administration services, has purchased HealthPocket, which provides health plan and health services purchasing data for consumers.  The purchase price was about $31 million.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/10089276.htm
Jul 22 2014

Shire has capitulated and agreed to accept a measly $55 billion from AbbVie in a merger.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/19/us-abbvie-shire-idUKKBN0FN0X620140719
Jul 22 2014

According to a study in the Annals of Family Medicine, greater use of text and telephone communication with diabetes patients was associated with an increase in in-person office visits, contrary to hopes that these cheaper forms of clinical interaction would reduce office visits and save on costs.

http://annfammed.org/content/12/4/338.full
Jul 22 2014

Alliance Healthcare Partners has invested $3.5 million in Prodigo, taking control of the hospital contracting and supply-chain consulting firm.
Jul 22 2014

HealthEquity, which administers health savings accounts, has set terms for its IPO, raising $100 million.
Jul 22 2014

Walgreens reports that visits to its in-store clinics continue to grow rapidly, with many patients returning to seek services in that setting.

http://news.walgreens.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5882
Jul 21 2014

A vendor of eating disorder services, Walden Behavioral Care, has received an investment from Seacoast Capital.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/07/seacoast-capital-invests-in-walden/
Jul 21 2014

Dicom Grid, which makes image sharing tools for health care, has obtained $6 million from investors, including the Mayo Clinic.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/07/another-startup-gets-funding-medical-image-sharing-time-6m-mayo-canaan-partners/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=e894abd146-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-e894abd146-67648197
Jul 21 2014

Research published in Health Affairs, based on data from Denmark, finds that hospital occupancy rates above 85% are associated with worsening mortality, as is being admitted outside of normal business hours or on weekends.  It is not clear, however, that there is a causative effect.  It would seem more likely that there would be one in the case of admissions outside normal hours, but high occupancy rates seem less likely to be causative of greater mortality.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/33/7/1236.abstract
Jul 21 2014

Valant Medical Solutions, a vendor of cloud-based EHR and billing software for behavioral health providers, has received an $11 million investment.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/07/valant-medical-solutions-secures-11mln/