Health Care Costs

Nov 20 2015

AonHewitt Analysis of Employer Health Costs

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

An AonHewitt analysis found that employers' health care costs rose 3.2% in 2015 and will climb by 4.1% in 2016.

Nov 19 2015

Drug Price Rationalizations

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The drug manufacturers trade association does a wonderful job of providing a rationalization for exorbitant pricing of medications, too bad it has no basis in moral or economic reality.

Nov 19 2015

UnitedHealth has lowered earnings guidance for 2016, citing individual exchange product issues. Here is an early 2016 prognostication; we have seen several hospital companies report deteriorating profitability and we are seeing health plans do that. Prepare for a new burst of health care inflation growth.

http://seekingalpha.com/news/2940646-unitedhealth-group-down-6-percent-on-lowered-guidance?uprof=45&dr=1#email_link

Nov 17 2015

Altarum’s Health Spending, Price and Utilization Briefs Through September

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

While growing faster than the economy, health care spending has risen at a slightly slower pace so far in the second half of 2015, according to Altarum Institute reports.

Nov 16 2015

Defensive Medicine May Lead to Fewer Malpractice Claims

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that physicians who practice defensive medicine may incur fewer malpractice suits.

Nov 13 2015

The Costs of Dementia

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that dementia related costs are the fastest growing among disease categories.

Nov 11 2015

Healthy Insurance Marketplaces

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A report from the Health Care Cost Institute examines the competitiveness and cost status of various American communities.

Nov 06 2015

A study from BDO found that health care chief executive and chief financial officer pay rose rapidly last year.

https://www.bdo.com/news/2015-october/cfo-year-over-year-compensation-outpaces-ceo

Nov 02 2015

HCCI’s 2014 Commercial Health Spending Report

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The Health Care Cost Initiative releases its 2014 commercial health plan spending report.

Oct 28 2015

Less Physician Competition Means Higher Prices

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

In a finding consistent with common sense and standard economic theory, research published by Health Affairs finds that more physician concentration in an area means higher prices for physician services.

Oct 21 2015

Hospital Buying of Physician Practices Raises Unit Prices

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Research in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that greater hospital ownership of physician practices leads to a significant increase in prices for services.

Oct 13 2015

The Choosing Wisely campaign is designed to encourage physicians to avoid ordering services of questionable value, but so far not much change in the use of the initial list of suspect items.

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2457401

Oct 07 2015

A Government Accounting Office Report will cheer up by reporting that at least $125 billion of your tax dollars are spent on improper payments, with much of that sum being accounted for by Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-92T

Oct 02 2015

State Initiatives to Manage Complex Patients

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The National Governor's Association may seem like an odd place to get health information but it issues an interesting report on state efforts to manage complex patients.

Oct 01 2015

The Latest IFHP Report on Comparative Health Prices

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

One of my favorite annual reports is out, from the International Federation of Health Plans, comparing prices for medical services and goods in various countries.