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 reviewing analyst call transcripts. Some current releases are discussed.
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 hospital bargaining power by large systems, which in turn is driving health insurance premium increases.
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 women are not being properly presented with the overall risks and benefits.
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 different characteristics in regard to workers’ compensation claims, according to a new NCCI report.
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 research and development costs. This spending may be shifting in some companies to more internet-based marketing.
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 practices, finding that any financial incentives are usually lower than the costs.
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.
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. Large employers are generally more satisfied than smaller ones.
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 basic health care to be delivered to people who lack any good access to care.
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. It is becoming clearer that worksite wellness is one of the most promising methods for limiting health care costs.
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 [email protected].
© 2023 Healthy Skeptic.
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