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 05 2013

ClearData Networks, a provider of cloud-based health care computing resources, has raised $14 million in expansion capital.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/morning_call/2013/12/phoenixs-cleardata-networks-lands-14.html
Dec 05 2013

UnitedHealth Group has told investors that fees under the reform law and cuts to Medicare Advantage will reduce earnings by around $1 billion.  It is likely other large health plan companies will be similarly affected.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/unitedhealth-details-expected-2014-overhaul-hits/2013/12/03/919f5f46-5c65-11e3-8d24-31c016b976b2_story.html
Dec 05 2013

New Mountain Capital has purchased Medical Specialties Distributors from Water Street.  MSD is a leading provider of products to the home infusion market.

http://www.newmountaincapital.com/downloads/Medical_Specialties_Distributors_Partners_with_New_Mountain_Capital_(14kb_-_PDF).pdf
Dec 05 2013

An article in the Journal of Palliative Care finds that palliative care can reduce ER visits and overall spending and improve the quality of end-of-life care, but faces many obstacles, including a balkanized system and lack of trained palliative care professionals.

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jpm.2013.9464
Dec 05 2013

AHRQ releases a Statistical Brief showing that the most common sources of adverse drug events during a hospitalization in 2011 were steroids, anticoagulants, antibiotics and narcotics.

http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb164.jsp
Dec 05 2013

Medicare 2014 Physician Payment Rule

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2013-28696.pdf
Dec 04 2013

The Commonwealth Fund has a post asking if better care at lower cost is possible.  The post rehashes the usual complaints about the health care system and offers the usual remedies.  The worst thing is that it repeats the erroneous notion that a third of the care in the US is wasteful and unnecessary.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Health-Reform-and-You/Better-Care-at-Lower-Cost.aspx
Dec 04 2013

Doctors may be less likely than the general population to seek aggressive end-of-life care, according to a story in the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/your-money/how-doctors-die.html?_r=0
Dec 03 2013

MedSolutions has purchased Triad, a musculoskeletal care management vendor, to add to its overall cost management capabilities.

http://www.medsolutions.com/news/11-19-13.html
Dec 03 2013

Apax Partners and associated funds are purchasing One Call Care Management for a believed $2.3 billion and also acquiring Align Networks.  Both entities serve the workers comp industry and when combined will be the major vendor to employers and insurers in the space.

http://www.apax.com/news/apax-news/2013/october/funds-advised-by-apax-partners-to-acquire-one-call-care-management-and-align-networks.aspx
Dec 03 2013

The Hearst Corporation, owner of First DataBank and other health care software divisions, is acquiring Homecare Homebase, a provider of software for the home care and hospice industry.

http://www.pehub.com/2013/12/hearst-corporation-acquires-homecare-homebase/
Dec 03 2013

So who is happy with the reform law?  Not physicians, who are waking up to a reality of lower reimbursement and narrow provider networks for plans insurers are selling on the exchanges.  Payers say the changes are necessary to create competitive plans.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20131126/NEWS/311269951/white-house-hears-earful-from-doc-groups-about-narrow-provider?AllowView=VW8xUmo5Q21TcWJOb1gzb0tNN3RLZ0h0MWg5SVgra3NZRzROR3l0WWRMWGFWZjhIRWxiNUtpQzMyWmFxNVhvWUpibWdiUUEzemxjY3IyZVlHZUUwemlPUnA4T3JIOXEwUmEwUEJ1VUZ6cW51TXFYazZKRlZlY21ENlZnZ0E2UTdublpQdWZFeVRYL3NuUjlJNkFDbEdKN3Q=