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 06 2014

QPID Health, which makes a software tool to help hospitals assess surgery risks, has raised $12 million.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/05/qpid-health-series-b-rakes-12-3-million-surgery-risk-assessment-platform/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=342b5454cc-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-342b5454cc-67648197
May 06 2014

Medicare Proposed 2015 Hospital Rule

http://ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2014-10067_PI.pdf
May 05 2014

RedBrick Health has raised $7.5 million, part of an intended larger financing, but oddly one of the purposes of the investment is said to be to pay executives and other employees.  Weird.

http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/mn/minneapolis/redbrick_health_corp/3317528
May 05 2014

Summit Partners, a large private equity firm, is acquiring all of MDVIP from Proctor & Gamble, which Summit had originally capitalized.

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/summit-partners-to-acquire-mdvip-nyse-pg-1905779.htm
May 05 2014

A report from IHS Technology predicts that the home health care technology market will be worth $5.8 billion by 2018.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140505/NEWS/305059945?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzhDdkdCbkJiYkY0M3hlMGFwaWtVZER1TT0=&utm_source=link-20140505-NEWS-305059945&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top
May 05 2014

Huron Consulting, which has a very large health care IT consulting segment, has acquired Vonlay consulting, which assists providers in implementing EHRs.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140505/NEWS/305059945?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzhDdkdCbkJiYkY0M3hlMGFwaWtVZER1TT0=&utm_source=link-20140505-NEWS-305059945&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top
May 01 2014

Cigna has said that its first wave of enrollees from the public insurance exchanges have higher health care costs than anticipated.  Other insurers have indicated they think they anticipated costs and priced right, but we will see.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cigna-profit-beats-expectations-helped-104523459.html
May 01 2014

According to a report from MedData, physicians frequently go online to get information related to clinical issues, most frequently use search engines to aid them and say that the biggest problem they have with online health information is that patients often misunderstand what they find online.

http://www.meddatagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/MedDataGroup-Health2.0-Movement-Q22014.pdf
May 01 2014

A study in the Journal of Adolescent Health finds that young adults who obtain health insurance continue to use the ER at very high rates, and while they have higher overall health spending than their uninsured peers, they have the same level of out-of-pocket spending.  You can lead em to the insurance, but you can't make em drink it right.

http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(14)00112-8/abstract
Apr 30 2014

Press Ganey, which helps providers improve patient satisfaction and quality, is acquiring Dynamic Clinical Solutions, which helps patients collect medical information and provide it to physicians.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140429/NEWS/304299925?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzlDUDJCbkJiYkY0M3hlMGVyaGtVZENPTT0=&utm_source=link-20140429-NEWS-304299925&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top
Apr 30 2014

According to an analysis by Mark Farrah Associates, Medicare supplement enrollment continues to grow.  Some experts believe Medicare supplement policies create overutilization of services.

http://www.markfarrah.com/healthcare-business-strategy/Med-Supp-Enrollment-Continues-to-Grow.aspx