A new research article examines the link between Medicare fee changes and the volume of utilization, confirming standard economic theory that the volume, or supply, of physician services does appear…
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EBRI held a workshop on the future of employment-based health benefits, bringing together experts from disparate constituencies to discuss the topic. As expected, there was significant disagreement about reform possibilities…
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The Centers for Disease Control issues a massive compendium of health facts and information called Health United States 2009. In addition to basic information regarding health care, it has some…
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Two more studies suggest that provider price increases, particularly those of hospitals, are the cause for overall spending rises and notes that there is little competitive check on providers' ability…
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The latest in our regular amalgamation of health care news items, including telehealth, how many people really die from not having health insurance, silent PPOs, progress in automating claims processing…
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Research indicates that commercial health insurance, while it has geographic variation in spending, does not vary in the same way as Medicare. A primary factor explaining private health plan geographic…
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The Office of Personnel Management releases a report showing progress in the number of FEHBP plans offering PHRs to members, but little use of those PHRs by patients and little…
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A Health Affairs article examines changes in the composition of Medicare spending over the last two decades, finding that chronic disease is now the primary driver of that spending and…
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The New England Journal of Medicine publishes dueling commentaries on geographic and provider spending variations. Having a clear understanding of whether there are providers who render more care with no…
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Health plans are receiving a lot of negative publicity regarding individual policy price increases. This development, however, should have been entirely expected in light of the recession and typical consumer…
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Select from this menu of topics on health improvement incentives, genetic testing for cancer treatment, health plan collaboration on use of IT for administration, value-based insurance design and comparative effectiveness…
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Much concern has been expressed about whether the FDA may make changes to the 510(k) and other regulations that hinder speed to market for medical device companies. A recently finalized…
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Personalized medicine is widely promoted as the future of health care. Several government agencies are examining the implications of growth in genomic knowledge and its application to medical practice. CDC…
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As part of health care reform, various reimbursement changes have proposed, such as episode bundling or time-based global payments. An article in Cancer points out that such revisions to payments…
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If there is no systemic federal health reform legislation, what are the most important individual bills that could be considered to limit cost increases, improve access and improve quality? In…
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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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