It is officially the start of summer and our Potpourri is hot, hot, hot, but not steamy! This week we cover why health care IT doesn't seem to create productivity…
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The American Medical Association regularly assesses the administrative performance of the large health plans on issues relevant to physicians. This year's report finds significant improvement in claims payment procedures and…
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When the Congressional Budget Office and the Board of Trustees of the Medicare trust funds make projections about future Medicare expenditures and revenues, they are required to utilize current law,…
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Our next report related to consumer-directed, high deductible health insurance plans comes from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and describes the characteristics of people in these plans over the years…
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This week we will discuss several high deductible insurance plan reports. The first is from America's Health Insurance Plans and gives information on details of enrolllment and plan types.
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Our Potpourri resumes, with information on consumer trust of insurers and providers, consumer use of online health information, price transparency in health care, imaging rates in integrated health care systems…
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The latest projection on national health spending from the CMS Office of the Actuary is out and published in Health Affairs. It suggests that the very modest reduction in growth…
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Germany has encouraged wellness programs in a manner similar to the US. A new report from the Commonwealth Fund discusses results from the country's efforts and draws lessons that may…
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The latest annual report on e-prescribing from SureScripts reveals continued rapid growth. The report also details benefits which appear to flow from greater use of electronic prescribing and opportunities to…
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PWC's Health Research Institute is projecting that overall medical cost trend for employment-based health care coverage will be around 7.5% for 2013, which is identical to the number it currently…
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A new Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality Statistical Brief decomposes the sources of inpatient hospital cost increases from 1997 to 2008, which is important to understand given that hospital…
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The Express Scripts 2011 Drug Trend Report shows very low overall growth in drug spending, but continued sharp increases in the specialty sub-category. The firm presents interesting information and evidence…
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A Medscape survey of physicians gives statistics on compensation and compensation trend and reveals doctors' attitudes regarding their pay. While "healthy", physician compensation is not generally lavish and growth in…
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Summer is heating up and our Potpourri is smoking too, with nuggets on a silly provision in the final MLR rule; research on causes of readmissions, some within hospital control,…
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Research reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that a comprehensive care management program for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had excess mortality, to the point that the trial was…
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About 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.