Continuing the great interest in explaining the geographic variation in health care spending, the National Center for Policy Analysis issues a report finding that there is variation but it may…
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The International Federation of Health Plans releases its latest comparison of prices for various services around the world, revealing as expected, that the US has the highest prices by far.
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There has a been a flurry of similar reports recently, but none should have more credibility than the one from the Society of Actuaries stating that yes, claim costs and…
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Managers, owners and investors in health care businesses should probably be preparing for a fair amount of chaos toward the end of this year and in 2014. The full implementation…
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One of the arguments critics of the United States' Health System love to use is our lower life expectancy than other developed countries. As research published in Health Affairs demonstrates,…
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Supposedly the reform act will be fully implemented next January and millions of Americans will be getting health insurance for the first time. A brief from CMS discusses who the…
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The latest salvo in the hospital pricing war is found in the American Journal of Managed Care, which reveals significant above general inflation increases in the costs of hospital services.
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The most recent issue of Health Affairs focuses on health and wellness. One of the programs reported found that in a health system's employee population, hospitalizations were reduced but not…
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iCore, a unit of Magellan, presents its third Medical Pharmacy & Oncology Trend Report, which indicates that specialty pharmacy costs continue to grow very rapidly, despite increased management attention from…
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When the reform law was being sold to a dubious public, we were told that premiums would actually be lower. That is obviously not going to be the case, but…
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An article in Health Affairs discusses an alternative to patient engagement on health care decisions--using the findings of behavioral economics and pyschology to encourage patients to adopt a desired path…
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The latest Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health survey of employers reveals information regarding strategies relating to the implementation of the health reform law. Much of what companies say they…
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Adding to the controversy about Medicare Advantage payments, a Government Accounting Office report suggests that diagnoses coding excesses may be inflating payments.
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Several studies in Health Affairs focus on consumer decision-making in health care and how to "improve" that decision-making, which often seems to mean how to get the patient to agree…
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The 2012 Express Scripts Drug Trend Report indicates that spending for traditional medications has actually fallen, while costs for specialty drugs continue to soar. More of the same is likely…
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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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