EBRI held a workshop on the future of employment-based health benefits, bringing together experts from disparate constituencies to discuss the topic. As expected, there was significant disagreement about reform possibilities…
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The Centers for Disease Control issues a massive compendium of health facts and information called Health United States 2009. In addition to basic information regarding health care, it has some…
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Two more studies suggest that provider price increases, particularly those of hospitals, are the cause for overall spending rises and notes that there is little competitive check on providers' ability…
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The latest in our regular amalgamation of health care news items, including telehealth, how many people really die from not having health insurance, silent PPOs, progress in automating claims processing…
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Research indicates that commercial health insurance, while it has geographic variation in spending, does not vary in the same way as Medicare. A primary factor explaining private health plan geographic…
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The Office of Personnel Management releases a report showing progress in the number of FEHBP plans offering PHRs to members, but little use of those PHRs by patients and little…
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A Health Affairs article examines changes in the composition of Medicare spending over the last two decades, finding that chronic disease is now the primary driver of that spending and…
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The New England Journal of Medicine publishes dueling commentaries on geographic and provider spending variations. Having a clear understanding of whether there are providers who render more care with no…
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Health plans are receiving a lot of negative publicity regarding individual policy price increases. This development, however, should have been entirely expected in light of the recession and typical consumer…
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Select from this menu of topics on health improvement incentives, genetic testing for cancer treatment, health plan collaboration on use of IT for administration, value-based insurance design and comparative effectiveness…
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