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.

Dec 13 2013

America's Health Rankings, which lists states by their scores on issues like obesity, exercise, smoking at care for common conditions, finds some overall improvement across the country and lists Hawaii as the healthiest state and Mississippi as the unhealthiest.

http://www.americashealthrankings.org
Dec 12 2013

According to a survey from Capgemini and QuantiaMD most physicians prefer to get drug information from digital sources as opposed to print material or visits from drug reps.  This actually can result in significant savings to manufacturers as drug reps are costly resources.

http://www.mmm-online.com/researchers-find-reps-increasingly-losing-out/article/324344/
Dec 12 2013

A study in Health Affairs suggests that giving emergency medical services more flexibility in transporting to places other than ERs could save Medicare several hundred million dollars a year.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/32/12/2142.abstract?=right
Dec 12 2013

Centene Corp. is paying about $200 million to gain a 68% interest in U.S. Medical Management, which provides management services for complex patients, typically in post-acute settings.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=130443&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1884196&highlight=
Dec 12 2013

According to the Medical Group Management Association practices costs to support a physician continue to rise significantly, led by IT costs which increased by by 28% per physician from 2008 to 2012.

http://www.mgma.com/press/default.aspx?id=1375452
Dec 12 2013

A Booz & Co. report postulates the possibility of creating health plans with radically lower administrative costs.

http://www.booz.com/media/file/BoozCo_The-5-Dollar-PMPM-Health-Plan.pdf
Dec 12 2013

LabCorp issued guidance suggesting that 2014 revenue and net income will be below prior expectations, blaming uncertainty caused by the reform law implementation in part.

http://www.fiercemedicaldevices.com/press-releases/labcorp-updates-2013-guidance-and-provides-preliminary-2014-guidance?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
Dec 11 2013

A Kaiser Family Foundation article suggests that even if there is substantial under-enrollment of the young, healthy people needed to subsidize health care costs for older enrollees, insurers should not have to raise premiums dramatically, but the authors own analysis likely understates the cost of the sicker enrollees and shows that second-year premium increases of over 20% would likely be necessary to avoid continuing losses.

http://kff.org/health-reform/perspective/the-numbers-behind-young-invincibles-and-the-affordable-care-act/
Dec 11 2013

Genophen, which uses patient genetic and other information to help guide health behaviors, has raised about $2 million in additional financing.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/22/genophen-funding/
Dec 11 2013

CIC Partners, a private equity firm, has sold portfolio company Omnisys, which provides claims and compliance services to retail and mail order pharmacies, to Moelis Capital Partners.

http://cicpartners.com/2013/11/cic-partners-announces-sale-of-omnisys/
Dec 11 2013

emids Technologies has received a $13.3 million investment to grow its business of health information technology and business process outsourcing.

http://www.emids.com/?q=news-articles/emids-technologies-raises-133-million-initial-funding-round
Dec 11 2013

HealthPort, which helps companies manage and secure private health information, has merged with CM Information Specialists, a company which provides similar services.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/02/ga-healthport-idUSnBw025078a+100+BSW20131202