The latest Towers Watson survey of employer intentions regarding health benefits indicates that significant changes may occur in the next two to three years, but the biggest danger may be firms’ willingness to play follow-the-leader when it comes to reactions to reform.
Research reported in Health Affairs examines the Mayo Clinic’s experience after increasing cost-sharing for its employees. Reductions in the use of many discretionary services seem to have been sustained over a multi-year period, leading to overall spending restraint.
A significant trend affecting all of health care in the last decade is consumerism, specifically the effort to engage consumers in managing their health and health care and to make care more patient-centered. A new report from GAO shows how hard these efforts can be when data, in this case data on provider prices, is hard to obtain and give to consumers.
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.
The world’s aflame with reporting on provider quality and cost performance. Making sure the information is complete, accurate and credible is no simple task, as a recent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report demonstrates.
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.
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.
Hospital readmissions are targeted as a quality metric and a reimbursement adjustment. The program used by CMS in particular appears flawed, and a recent study examining readmission-risk models supports that conclusion.
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.
As Medicaid enrollment continues to grow, and will likely surge in 2014, states are looking for ways to control costs. Pharmacy spending has been an area of focus and a new Kaiser report discusses how states are handling prescription drug issues.
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].
© 2024 Healthy Skeptic.
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