by Tom Barrett | Jan 22, 2018 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Insurance, Managed Care - Group Health
Job-based health insurance is still far and away the largest single source of health care coverage in the U.S. As we continue to work on behalf of clients to drive new and better ways to stem the tide of health care costs, here are some key stats from 2017 to ponder:...
by Tom Barrett | Dec 8, 2017 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Healthcare Issues, Insurance, Managed Care - Group Health, National News, News and Events, Uncategorized
In a letter to the broker community Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini provided a glimpse of where the combined CVS/Aetna entity hopes to head once everything is completed. If approved, the blockbuster transaction is expected to close late in 2018. Here’s what Bertolini had to...
by Mike Barrett | Jan 25, 2017 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, Managed Care - Group Health
What do we see? Our opinion was that if Hillary Clinton had won, ACA would have gotten the heavy lift it would have needed to advance. The difficult regulations would have been imposed (vs delayed further) and the money would have been allocated from general funds to...
by Tom Barrett | Apr 8, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Managed Care - Group Health, Medicare Medicaid, National News, News and Events, Pharmacy Costs, Pharmacy, PBMs and Pharma Costs, Providers, Uncategorized
This post follows up on last week’s primer on how abuse of prescription pain medications has led to what’s now recognized as a true national crisis. The new podcast Embedded provides a riveting inside look at how the use of one particularly powerful prescription...
by Tom Barrett | Apr 1, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Managed Care - Group Health, National News, News and Events, Pharmacy Costs, Pharmacy, PBMs and Pharma Costs, Providers, Uncategorized
There’s a lot in the news these days about what’s referred to as the opioid crisis or epidemic. Just yesterday for instance — highly respected healthcare consultant (and close friend) Joe Paduda, fresh off of speaking at a national drug summit in Atlanta, wrote...
by Tom Barrett | Mar 9, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Managed Care - Group Health, Providers
Use of retail clinics leads to higher costs. Seems a bit counter-intuitive doesn’t it? You’d think that the use of retail clinics like those found in some CVS and Kroger stores and typically staffed by nurse practitioners would be apt to lower total costs. In fact...
