by Tom Barrett | May 24, 2019 | Healthcare Costs, Insurance, Providers, SharedFunding, Uncategorized
A study of spending on 12.5 million diagnostics tests by UnitedHealthcare once again revealed substantial variation in the prices patients pay for common diagnostic tests. The seven groups of common diagnostic tests included echocardiograms, mammograms and...
by Tom Barrett | Oct 4, 2018 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Insurance, Providers, Uncategorized
$19,616 — that’s the average cost nationwide of an employer-provided family health plan in 2018 according to recent employer study conducted by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation and reported in today’s Wall Street Journal. It’s pretty...
by Tom Barrett | Jun 26, 2018 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, National News, News and Events, Providers, Uncategorized
(Note: In keeping with our 2 Minute Drill mantra, we’ve broken this into two parts. Today in Part 1 we’ll highlight Gawande’s view of the three big systemic problems with healthcare. Tomorrow in Part 2 we’ll summarize his vision for the ABJ-HCE.) Last week...
by Tom Barrett | May 6, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, Providers
Many employers are receiving letters from CMS (Medicare) requesting information and it’s causing some confusion. The actual title of the letter reads “Requirement to Submit the Group Health Plan Report for the IRS/SSA/CMS Data Project”. Here’s an overview that may...
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...
