97% of ER doctors say they order imaging and tests of dubious value in order to avoid potential lawsuits. The study in Academic Emergency Medicine says such unnecessary tests adds $210 billion in annual health spending.
Despite good information availability, an NBER paper finds that consumers don't pay adequate attention to Part D plan features and pricing and this costs them each $536 and Medicare $550 million over three years. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink, or maybe the horse doesn't know how to find the water or maybe they aren't sure how to drink or maybe its too many drugs, or something like that.
According to a study in the Journal of Health Economics, the extended dependent coverage provisions under the reform law added 2.5% to 2.8% to employer plan premiums, much of which was passed on to employees.
Everyday Health, the consumer medical information website, is buying Cambridge BioMarketing, which helps drug companies with marketing for rare disease medications.
Zeomega, a population health management company, has acquired HealthUnity, which helps with interoperability and data-sharing across provider, payer and other information systems.
Further to medicine is still not fully evidence-based, pathologists have a wider variance in diagnosing disease from tissue samples than you might think, according to a study in JAMA.
In a move they hope doesn't go pear-shaped or look too fruity, investors have given an undisclosed amount of capital to Pear Therapeutics, which makes "digital health interventions" designed to enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals, with an initial focus on brain disorders, such as making illogical investment choices.
Hospital chain Tenet Healthcare is buying a majority stake in United Surgical partners, which operates ambulatory surgery centers, for $425 million, and separately is buying Aspen Healthcare, which operates hospitals and clinics in the UK, for $215 million.
Select Medical, backed by a PE firm, is buying the Concentra unit of Humana for over $1 billion. Concentra operates urgent care and workers' comp clinics.
More problems with quality measures, serious concern has been raised about CMS using AHRQ composite patient safety indicator PSI-90 in its value-based purchasing program.
IBM has invested in specialty-oriented EHR vendor Modernizing Medicine, with the goal of encouraging more use of the Watson cognitive engine in health care.
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 khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
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 khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.