HealthMine surveyed consumers on communication channels between patients and providers, finding that while 89% of younger members connect to their health plan via its portal, only 65% of Medicare members do; 70% of younger members prefer digital communication channels, while 31% of Medicare ones do; 48% of Medicare members prefer phone contacts and 47% of Medicare enrollees find that an online portal rarely answers their questions, compared to only 19% of younger ones.
MA risk adjustment vendor Matrix Medical Network is acquiring LP Health Services, which also provides risk adjustment visits and some care management services.
Concentra, a large workers' comp and urgent care clinic provider, and U.S. Healthworks, another vendor of onsite occupational health clinics, are being merged by their respective PE owners in a transaction valued at around $750 million.
A study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine found that in the New Haven area, Medicaid patients waited substantially longer than did commercial ones to get a followup appointment at most physician practices, although they had shorter waits for a more serious issue, hypertension, than for one like back pain. Helps explain ER misuse and demonstrates impact of low reimbursement rates.
In a very complex transaction, patient engagement vendor MedHelp is being split between disease and health management vendor Staywell, which is itself majority owned by Merck and which is acquiring disease management focused-apps from MedHelp, and consumer health website vendor Vitals, which is acquiring the similar parts of MedHelp.
medhelp staywell
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.
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.