Mark Farrah Associates provides an analysis of the enrollment and profitability trends for large health plans for the first quarter of 2013.
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Some well-known former political and regulatory figures are proposing another shopworn approach to dealing with health spending and quality issues.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation issues a brief report on the status of the Medicare hospital readmissions penalty program as it heads into its second year, with CMS levying significant penalties…
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A report sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation examines the current state of electronic medical record use in the United States.
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An analysis performed for CMS looks at the effect of narrower pharmacy networks with preferred providers for Part D plans, finding that generally these networks had lower spending.
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Whatever government reimbursement mechanism is used, the affected providers are likely to change behavior to maximize their economics, as reflected in an Office of Inspector General report on observational hospital…
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The Journal of the American Medical Association carries a survey on how doctors in the United States view their role in controlling spending and gives their perspective on various approaches…
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A study published in Health Affairs confirms earlier research suggesting that Medicare Advantage plans do a better job of delivering quality health care than does fee-for-service Medicare.
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Hopefully, the recent Institute of Medicine final report on geographic variation in health spending will be near the last volley in this long-running, getting tiresome discussion of the existence, causes…
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The Government Accounting Office issues a very disturbing report showing how billions of dollars are being wasted by the federal government on information technology projects. Several health projects feature prominently.
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A new brief from Truven Health Analytics examines the leading drivers of spending in employer sponsored health plans.
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Research in Health Affairs examines the early results from a series of studies of value-based insurance design, finding better quality but no significant savings.
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Evidence is accumulating that Medicare Advantage plans do a better job than fee-for-service Medicare in controlling utilization and spending, while not adversely affecting quality outcomes, but there is substantial geographic…
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For a number of years CMS has conducted demonstrations and pilots with provider organizations similar to the current accountable care organization concept. Those demonstrations appear to have had mixed results,…
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A lot of information and misinformation has been released lately in regard to the health insurance exchanges, the premiums for policies sold on those exchanges and who will be offering…
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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.
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