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.

Mar 19 2014

First Stop Health has received an additional $2.2 million in financing for its telehealth and patient assistance business.

http://www.pehub.com/2014/03/first-stop-health-receives-additional-angel-financing/
Mar 19 2014

AbilTo, a provider of behavior change services for people with chronic conditions, has raised $6 million to help with the growth of the company.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/03/abiltos-behavior-change-programs-to-cut-medical-costs-growing-healthcare-investing-trend/
Mar 19 2014

Showing how difficult it is to get consumers to think objectively about their doctors, research published in Health Services Research finds that patients whose doctors rank low on quality measures are no more likely than patients with highly-rated physicians to switch doctors.  In fact, they may be more likely to switch health plans if the fact that their doctor is low-rated causes a higher copay.

http://www.cfah.org/hbns/2014/patients-are-loyal-to-their-doctors-despite-performance-scores
Mar 18 2014

In the wall of shame category, the list of the top ten compensated "non-profit" health system CEOs is topped by one earning over $6 million.  There is no justification for non-profit, usually tax-exempt systems paying this kind of compensation and it has flow down effects on compensation of others that raises hospital costs significantly.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/compensation-issues/ceo-compensation-of-the-25-top-grossing-nonprofit-hospitals-2014.html
Mar 18 2014

The US market for patient monitoring will grow from $3.5 billion in 2013 to $5.1 billion in 2020 according to iData Research.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/u-s-patient-monitoring-market-to-hit-5-1b-by-2020.html
Mar 18 2014

PipelineRx, a clinical telepharmacy company, has received up to $5 million in financing from AMN Healthcare, a large staffing firm.

http://amnhealthcare.mediaroom.com/2014-03-17-AMN-Healthcare-Invests-in-Leading-Telepharmacy-Company-PipelineRx
Mar 18 2014

Gravie, a health insurance exchange and consumer support company, has raised $10.5 million.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/blog/in_private/2014/03/health-care-startup-gravie-raised-10-5-million.html
Mar 18 2014

Research published in JAMA Surgery finds that most outcome quality measures used to differentiate hospital performance, such as risk-adjusted mortality, are not very reliable or accurate.

http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1840754#Methods
Mar 18 2014

A survey from FICO suggests that consumers are not using their mobile phones much in connection with managing their health insurance, despite health plans creation and promotion of apps.

http://www.fico.com/en/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/fico-global-survey-reveals-connected-consumers-want-information-policy-alerts-insurers/
Mar 18 2014

IMS has put out a report on the future of information technology within life sciences companies.

http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/imshealth/menuitem.762a961826aad98f53c753c71ad8c22a/?vgnextoid=743a7a4c18394410VgnVCM10000076192ca2RCRD&vgnextchannel=a64de5fda6370410VgnVCM10000076192ca2RCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Mar 17 2014

HealthSmart, a health plan administration company, has agreed to acquire Preferred Health Plan, a Kentucky TPA.

http://www.healthsmart.com/AboutUs/AboutUs/Careers/PHP-PressRelease-Final-(1).aspx
Mar 17 2014

Research firm IBISWorld has estimated that the telehealth market will grow at an annualized rate of 30% to $320 million over the next five years.

https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/telehealth-services.html
Mar 17 2014

Medical Cost Management Solutions, a provider of population health services, primarily to collectively bargained plans, has acquired Med-care Management, a Florida care management company.

http://www.medicalcost.com/mcm-solutions-health-acquires-med-care-management/