Insurers and employers are increasingly moving to high-deductible health plans to control costs but this is not necessarily good for the healthcare system nor patients. Now a new alternative is being proposed called the Medical Episode Spending Allowance ( MESA ) plan. According to a University of Minnesota recent study: The number of American workers… Read More
The Kaiser Family Foundation website looks at where the healthcare dollar goes. Apparently $2.3 trillion was spent on healthcare in 2010 Hospital care—31 percent Physician/clinical services—20 percent Retail Rx drugs—10 percent Net cost of health insurance—6 percent Investment—6 percent Other health, residential, and personal care—8 percent Other professional services—7 percent Nursing home care—5 percent Home… Read More
Another company is entering the physician direct to patient or “housecall” market in California. It is surprising how much money is being thrown at this and how unfortunately, the business model is still not sorted out. Excerpts from the MSN article include California-based Heal is betting that housecalls can not just make you healthier, but… Read More
The bipartisan legislation put forward this week would also allow off-campus hospital outpatient departments currently under construction to continue receiving higher rates than similar facilities that aren’t owned by hospitals. Bipartisan legislation introduced this week would tweak Medicare’s readmissions program to adjust for socio-economic status of patients. It would also allow off-campus hospital outpatient departments… Read More
Medical coverage is one thing but physicians and patients alike will tell you coverage does not mean that they will have access to timely medical care. The issue that California is facing is that the Accountable Care Act (ACA) has covered a tremendous number of patients with Medi-Cal leading many to believe they will have… Read More
Real Estate. Internet companies. Real estate again. Banks. Next healthcare?It is interesting that there are some unbelievably conflicting articles about how the Obamacare Exchange Plans and Medicaid Expansion are going. On one side, there have been some studies that show the plans are efficient and cutting the cost of healthcare and even an Op=Ed… Read More
It is always interesting to follow the successes and failures of healthcare reform. The touted solution of Obamacare revolves around the formation of the Accountable Care Organization (ACO). Recently, there has been quite a bit of press about the failure of ACO’s and more recently United Healthcare has publicly reported that they will be dropping out… Read More
The results are out: 3% winners and 97% losers in the first go around on Medicare bonuses for the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBM) program in 2014. No one knew what exactly to expect when the instituted the VBM program but no one expected these lopsided results and clearly now it appears these results are like a… Read More
It was just a matter of time before insurance companies passed on their ACA losses to physicians. I mark is just the first insurance company to announce that they will cut physician pay by 4.5% to help mitigate their losses from the Obamacare plans. As multiple insurance companies have announced that they suffered significant losses… Read More
You must be logged in to post a comment.