UnitedHealth Group has told investors that fees under the reform law and cuts to Medicare Advantage will reduce earnings by around $1 billion. It is likely other large health plan companies will be similarly affected.
New Mountain Capital has purchased Medical Specialties Distributors from Water Street. MSD is a leading provider of products to the home infusion market.
An article in the Journal of Palliative Care finds that palliative care can reduce ER visits and overall spending and improve the quality of end-of-life care, but faces many obstacles, including a balkanized system and lack of trained palliative care professionals.
AHRQ releases a Statistical Brief showing that the most common sources of adverse drug events during a hospitalization in 2011 were steroids, anticoagulants, antibiotics and narcotics.
The Commonwealth Fund has a post asking if better care at lower cost is possible. The post rehashes the usual complaints about the health care system and offers the usual remedies. The worst thing is that it repeats the erroneous notion that a third of the care in the US is wasteful and unnecessary.
MedSolutions has purchased Triad, a musculoskeletal care management vendor, to add to its overall cost management capabilities.
http://www.medsolutions.com/news/11-19-13.html
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Apax Partners and associated funds are purchasing One Call Care Management for a believed $2.3 billion and also acquiring Align Networks. Both entities serve the workers comp industry and when combined will be the major vendor to employers and insurers in the space.
The Hearst Corporation, owner of First DataBank and other health care software divisions, is acquiring Homecare Homebase, a provider of software for the home care and hospice industry.
So who is happy with the reform law? Not physicians, who are waking up to a reality of lower reimbursement and narrow provider networks for plans insurers are selling on the exchanges. Payers say the changes are necessary to create competitive plans.
The excellent Altarum Institute index on health inflation showed only a 1% year-over-year increase in September, with even hospital prices rising only at 1.5%. Utilization increased 2.7% on a per capita basis. The bad news is that overall health spending in real terms continues to outpace economic growth.
Towers Watson has purchased private health insurance exchange vendor Liazon to add to its capabilities and to its earlier purchase of Extend Health. All of the large benefits consultants are aggressively engaged in providing this capability to clients.
Displaying the cost of lab tests in an EHR led to a reduction in orders for the tests by primary care physicians, according to research in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
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.