New research published in Health Affairs finds that geographic variation in Medicare spending is not strongly driven by price variation. Utilization differences appear to be the major cause of that…
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Value-based insurance design attempts to use cost-sharing to maximize use of health services that lead to good health outcomes. Two recent analyses demonstrate that cost-sharing features of health care coverage…
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Many states have created workers' compensation fee schedules based on Medicare reimbursement for physicians. Doing so can create traps if the frequent changes in the Medicare payment mechanisms are not…
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CBO analyzes a Republican proposal on federal spending, finding that the health care-related provisions would significantly reduce federal spending and national health expenditures, while increasing covered persons by an unspecified…
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The Massachusetts Attorney General investigates and discovers that hospitals and some physicians have market power and consequently are able to demand high payments and those payments are the main cause…
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Four times a year public companies regale us with their (usually optimistic) views of the firm's past performance, future prospects and market environment. Interesting information can occasionally be found by…
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Rhode Island released a report on payments to hospitals from various sources and looked at factors accounting for significant differences in payment levels. The variation is likely entirely due to…
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The recommended schedule for mammography screenings to detect breast cancer is examined in a Cochrane report, which finds that the current recommendation probably leads to overdiagnosis and treatment and the…
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While employees over 65 are a very small part of the work force, their numbers are growing and the recession likely will keep people working longer. These employees have some…
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Pharmaceutical manufacturers have spent massive amounts of money on sending sales reps to visit individual physicians and on direct-to-consumer advertising, to the point that this spending is often larger than…
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Quality measurement and pay-for-performance programs continue to spread, in the belief that they will improve health care quality. A new study looks at the costs these programs impose on physician…
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Healthy health care snacks--concierge medicine, personalized medicine, health care hiring, electronic medical records, Medicaid, disease management--all for your reading pleasure on the weekend.
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PriceWaterhouseCoopers releases a survey on large and small employers' perspective on their health insurers. The results show increasing dissatisfaction along several dimensions, with minor improvement on only one or two.…
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An early use of telemedicine was bringing medical expertise to underserved areas. A new venture indicates that there continue to be significant opportunities for this aspect of the field, allowing…
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Health Affairs publishes a study examining a number of workplace wellness efforts. The meta-analysis finds that most programs offer substantial returns on investment, through both health cost and absenteeism reductions.…
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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.