The Kaiser Family Foundation sponsored focus groups to learn what factors were important to Medicare beneficiaries in choosing insurance plans, including Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage and Part D.
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The 2014 Milliman Medical Index release reveals continued above GDP and personal income growth in the costs of health care for the average family.
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The 2014 bSwift benefits survey looks at trends in health benefits, with a focus on wellness, defined contribution and automation.
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Apixio raised $13.5 million for its software and analytics business, which focuses on helping payers and providers estimate patient risk and costs.
Aver Informatics has raised $8.5 million for its software that helps create bundled payment systems.
Many employers are self-funded for their health benefit plans. Most of these employers also have reinsurance or stop-loss coverage for those plans and Milliman describes current characteristics of that reinsurance.
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Please, please stop funding these companies--you are wasting your time and money and I am tired of writing about them. Mango Health has raised $5.25 million for its app to help improve patients' adherence to treatment regimens.
http://www.pehub.com/2014/05/kpcb-leads-series-a-round-for-mango-health/Tennessee regulators are proposing that a patient who uses telemedicine first must have an in-person visit with the physician on the other end of the line. The purported reason is to ensure use of a primary care doctor and building a solid relationship, but the rule would greatly frustrate the ability of telemedicine to provide better and more convenient access to patients and would raise costs.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2014/05/19/tennessee-tighten-rules-telemedicine/9306711/A draft report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality assesses the current state of public reporting of health care cost measures.
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SureScripts routed over a billion prescriptions last year, 58% of the total. Outstanding progress has been made in moving to eprescribing.
http://surescripts.com/news-center/press-releases/!content/surescripts-reports-more-than-half-of-all-prescriptions-routed-electronically-in-2013-driving-adoption-of-broader-health-information-exchangeAbout this Blog
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. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.