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.

Jan 28 2014

Provider population health software vendor Relatient announced that it has obtained an initial round of funding.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140124/BUSINESS05/301240082?nclick_check=1
Jan 28 2014

Noted health economist Uwe Reinhardt, in a JAMA viewpoint, suggests that price transparency is a "disruptive innovation" for health care, particularly when linked to reference pricing.  This assumes, however, that patients are more interested in price than in a relationship with a particular doctor, and that consumers have sufficient incentives to care about price.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1769895
Jan 28 2014

A viewpoint in JAMA looks at the tension between population health management approaches and individualized health care, suggesting that population health goals should take precedence over individual choices.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1763247
Jan 27 2014

Brightree, which provides billing and related services for home health providers, has acquired Strategic AR, which offers collection and similar services.

http://www.hmenews.com/article/moneyline-brightree-dhs-norco
Jan 27 2014

A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that application of the Medicare value-based purchasing program to hospitals serving more disadvantages patients punishes them financially, reducing their resources to improve care, which hopefully is an unintended consequence.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312654
Jan 27 2014

Quest Laboratories is purchasing Solstas, another lab company, for around $570 million, to add to its presence in the Southeast.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/01/22/quest-solstas-idINL3N0KW4EK20140122
Jan 24 2014

UnitedHealth Group is apparently planning to acquire Audax Health, which makes gaming-style health assessment and patient engagement software.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/01/audax-health-unitedhealth-deal-nothing-announce/?utm_source=MedCity+News+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4ac6a19742-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c05cce483a-4ac6a19742-67648197
Jan 24 2014

7wireventures has invested in Wiser Together, crowd-sourcing platform to help people with medical decisions.  Yes, lets all let strangers help us with our health issues.

http://7wireventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/7wireVenturesInvestsinWiserTogether.pdf
Jan 24 2014

A report from the American Action Forum suggests that for most young adults paying the penalty is a better economic deal than getting health insurance.

http://americanactionforum.org/research/to-buy-or-not-to-buy-uninsured-young-adults-and-the-perverse-economic-incen
Jan 24 2014

Healthcare Bluebook raised $7 million for its product to help create greater price transparency.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140114005234/en/Healthcare-Bluebook-Raises-7M-Companies-Deal-Rising#.UuE4gP16hz8
Jan 24 2014

A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine critiques the application of Medicare value-based purchasing to physicians, pointing out that doctors have not accepted the system or the specific quality measures and participation is likely to be very limited until a better and less expensive system is implemented.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312287
Jan 24 2014

DocsInk, a startup providing mobile administrative services to medical practices, has raised about $1 million.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/docsink/chargecapture/prweb11485038.htm
Jan 24 2014

Startup First Opinion has raised $1.2 million for its app that allows patients to find and communicate with physicians.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/14/with-1-2m-from-greylock-yuri-milner-and-500-startups-first-opinion-lets-you-text-a-doctor-anytime/