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.

Jun 25 2014

MedPAC Annual Report to Congress 2014

http://www.medpac.gov/documents/Jun14_EntireReport.pdf
Jun 25 2014

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has sent a letter to CMS regarding problems ACOs are having in their early Medicare experience, including patient attribution and quality reporting issues.

http://www.medpac.gov/documents/06162014_ACO_issue_letter_2014_COMMENT.pdf
Jun 24 2014

Emdeon, the large claims clearinghouse and revenue cycle management company is acquiring Capario, which has a cloud-based unified revenue administration system.

http://emdeon.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=180
Jun 24 2014

House was right, patients lie.  According to new research, however, they will lie less to a virtual physician.  In an experiment reported in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, participants disclosed more fully in an interview they believed was conducted by a computer than one controlled by a human.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214002647
Jun 24 2014

West Corporation, a public communications technology and services firm, has purchased Health Advocate for $275 million.  Health Advocate provides wellness and care management services.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/health-care/2014/05/health-advocate-acquired-by-nebraska-firm-for-265.html
Jun 23 2014

Equian, which sells cost containment services to the medical and workers' compensation industries, has acquired AfterMath Claim Sciences, which does post-payment error review.

http://www.equian.com/2014/06/16/equian-acquires-aftermath-claim-science/
Jun 23 2014

Xerox, through its ACS division, has acquired ISG Services, a large workers' compensation program vendor which includes StrataCare and Bunch, for $225 million.

http://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20140612/NEWS08/140619911?tags=%7C63%7C65%7C285%7C304%7C92
Jun 23 2014

A Modern Healthcare analysis of 200 health system financial reports finds a significant narrowing of margins in the last year.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140621/MAGAZINE/306219968&utm_source=AltURL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=am?AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTVEUGFmL1I3TkErT1lBajNja0U4VURPUmNFQk1HREE9PQ==&mh
Jun 23 2014

Research in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association studied the Veterans Health Administration electronic medical record system and found that EHRs are associated with frequent patient safety issues, some from poor user actions, but the majority from issues with the software itself.

http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2014/05/20/amiajnl-2013-002578
Jun 23 2014

Linden Care, a pain management specialty pharmacy and portfolio company of BelHealth, is acquiring Quick Care to expand its presence to the West Coast.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/06/linden-care-acquires-quick-care/
Jun 23 2014

KPMG is buying Zannet Commercial Solutions, which provides health care information technology consulting to the health care industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/kpmg-expected-to-announce-deal-to-boost-health-care-practice-1403496324?KEYWORDS=health+reform&utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13262684&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9roIcY5TUCsRgq_9dT82djv4kHd7j9oaOUZOh4ZavGSSfbBj6VFhBNq9arwWyWNo8hZqeDt050XsdFVsha7eAswwIw6w&_hsmi=13262684