Headlines – Page 335 – Healthy Skeptic

Sep 19 2013

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By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

The Labor Department has decreed that 2 million home health care workers are subject to the minimum wage and hourly work provisions, which may be a nice pay back to unions and other groups which contribute to Democrats and the Administration, but which will also raise health care costs.

Sep 18 2013

hie

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

Walgreens is the latest large employer to move to the defined contribution, private exchange method of providing health benefits. The trend will go very fast toward this approach as it allows companies to finally control health spending by just increasing contributions very moderately. Bad news for employees, who will shoulder even more of health care cost increases.

Sep 18 2013

cbo

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

The Congressional Budget Office issued an updated long-term fiscal projection for the United States, continuing to show dire consequences from unbridled debt growth, mostly due to excessive entitlement, particularly health care, spending.

Sep 16 2013

td

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

TelaDoc, which recently acquired another telemedicine company, has raised an additional $15 million in financing to help pay for the acquisition.

Sep 16 2013

els

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

LexisNexis, an Elsevier company, has acquired Enclarity, which provides provider identification and authentication tools. LexisNexis has made several acquisitions in the health IT space recently.

Sep 16 2013

hr

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

Similar to many administrative aspects of health reform, the cost of running a key website for the exchanges has tripled from the original estimate.

Sep 11 2013

mandate

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

The Congressional Budget Office finds that delaying the individual mandate for one year, coupled with other small changes to the reform law, would save $36 billion. Okay, so where is all the cost reduction from the reform law–if it existed, the delay would increase federal costs.

Sep 11 2013

hai

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

According to researchers, the five most common health-care associated infections, many if not most of which should be preventable, account for $9.8 billion of cost annually.

Sep 11 2013

icu

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

A study in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that significant amounts of futile care are delivered in ICUs at a substantial cost.

Sep 11 2013

rob

By Kevin Roche Headlines No Comments

Another study shows that robotic surgery, this time for gynecologic conditions, is more costly than other methods and likely delivers no better, and in some respects, worse, quality.