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Healthy Skeptic

Health care news and research

 

2011 Potpourri XXXXIII

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Winter nears but our Potpourri will distract you from the cold breezes, providing compelling nuggets on prostate screening recommendations, consumer use of technology for health, insurer medical cost trends, what to do about Medicare’s physician payments, heart failure hospitalization and mortality rates and rates of non-filling of new prescriptions.

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More Trashing of the US Health System

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From the Commonwealth Fund comes another in a series of reports bemoaning the woeful inadequacy of the American health system, especially compared to those in other developed countries. Whatever our faults, this type of analysis is filled with its own flaws and provides little useful guidance for addressing our issues.

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Specialty Pharmacy

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Specialty drugs have gotten the attention of all payers, with multiple efforts underway to manage the exploding costs associated with this category. A new paper from URAC summarizes the issues and sets out the value of using an accredited specialty pharmacy.

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2011 Potpourri XXXXII

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Another brilliant Potpourri, with scintillating health care gems, including revising the FDA’s 510(k) process, the essential benefits package for health exchanges, the future of Medicare Advantage, the lack of labor productivity in health care, variation in elective procedure rates and the OIG’s work plan.

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Insurance Market Competitiveness

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The Kaiser Foundation takes a look at the competitiveness of individual and small group health insurance markets on a state-by-state basis, finding that most are relatively concentrated. The report also examines the implications of this concentration for aspects of the reform law, particularly the exchanges and rate review.

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