According to CareFirst, members in its medical home arrangements had significantly lower utilization of hospital and saved $130 million over expected costs.
Pain Doctor, which provides pain management clinics in Arizona, said it has received a "significant" equity investment from Catterton Partners to facilitate expansion.
Validic, which is building a business around collecting data from wearables, medical devices and other sources, has acquired Infometers, which is in a similar business.
UnitedHealth Group released results of a study in which oncology practices were paid a flat sum for treatment of cancer. While performance on quality of care measures remained the same, total medical costs declined 34%, even though there was greater cost for chemotherapy drugs.
The HHS Office of Inspector General found a high rate of data "inconsistencies" in federal exchange enrollments, over 2.9 million, most related to citizenship or eligibility, and that almost all of these, 2.6 million could not be resolved. Similar problems appear to exist on the state exchanges.
Research in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatology finds that about a third of total knee replacement procedures were inappropriate or unnecessary, at a very large cost to the system and significant risks to the patients undergoing these procedures.
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.