Jun
29

Part of the solution

Is not being part of the problem. So, I’m running for office – specifically Onondaga County Legislator, 6th District.

I’d much appreciate your support if you are so inclined – please follow on Twitter and Facebook. We’re also fundraising and accepting contributions here.

Why am I running?

One reason – our area (Syracuse New York and surrounding communities) is the worst in the nation in terms of economic opportunity.

Yes, Onondaga County has been hammered by things beyond our control – as have many cities and counties. But unlike Buffalo, South Bend or Fort Wayne Indiana, our leaders have done little but watch and squabble and talk as our communities have deteriorated, businesses moved out, and jobs disappeared.

I see the history here- a community that created an entire industry and supplied the entire country with a critical resource – salt.

A community where innovation and creativity built a hugely successful foundry – Crucible. Where giant companies built big businesses and employed thousands in well-paying jobs in autos, electronics, chemicals, heavy industry here – in Onondaga County – because they needed committed workers, robust infrastructure, and can-do government. We have one of the world’s leading research universities, and in our community we have businesses like Tessy Plastics and Welch-Allyn, two innovative, successful businesses that prove you can prosper here.

Onondaga County can – must – get back to what it was – a high-energy, powerful, creative and can-do community.

County Legislators are supposed to manage a $1.4 BILLION budget, oversee County operations, and set priorities for the County. For this they get paid about $30,000 a year (which is about the average income here), AND get New York State health and retirement benefits. All that – taxpayer paid – for going to three or four meetings a month – if they even bother to schedule and show up to those meetings (many times they don’t).

As some of my most discerning readers may have noticed, my political leanings tilt Democratic – but old party definitions don’t mean much any more. Back in the day no Democrat would take $250,000 to speak to a huge investment bank, or forgive an entire industry for causing the worst recession since 1929, or ignore what’s been happening to working class families.

And Republicans wouldn’t have dreamed of trade protectionism or violating states’ rights by forcing them to comply with other states’ laws.

Yes, I’m going to continue my day job – working with workers’ comp companies to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs for employers and insurers. I love what I do, and I really enjoy helping companies get better.

One simple and greatly appreciated way to show support if you are so inclined would be to follow on Twitter & and Facebook. We’re also fundraising and accepting contributions here.


Jun
28

The ACA lives on – good news for everyone

Especially congressional Republicans.

As of 4 pm on Tuesday, 9 Republican Senators have publicly stated they will vote against the Senate’s health care bill. While some want more dollars, care, and support, others want a complete repeal. This puts Majority Leader McConnell in an unwinnable position; everything he gives to the moderates upsets the hard-right Senators.

While McConnell continues to say they’ll vote on the bill after the July 4 recess, that’s unlikely.  He rammed it through in secret precisely out of fear that the longer it was in the public eye, the lower the chances for passage. Rest assured Senators will get an earful when they return home to do the parade thing.

While many Republicans will be assailed by hard-right activists for failing to deliver on “repeal and replace”, many are likely raising a toast to the gallows they just avoided.

There are two reasons for this. First, neither of the Republican bills would do anything to address the real problem – healthcare costs.  insurance costs are high in large part because healthcare in the US costs way too much and about a third of that spend is unnecessary.  So, if the bill had passed, it would have done nothing to keep costs low, and the Republicans would be getting the blame for higher premiums – as the Dems have since 2014.

More immediately, the House or Senate or some combination bill would have crushed core Republican voters – white, working class, generally older Americans. BCRA/AHCA would have led to sharply higher insurance premiums for many, while their poorer neighbors would have lost the Medicaid coverage they gained, if they are fortunate enough to live in a state that expanded Medicaid.

The average net increase for a silver plan under BCRA was, according to the CBO, 74 percent.

Older people – like me – would have paid much more than that.

And that’s why the glasses are clinking in the bars around Capitol Hill.

What’s next? Hopefully Republicans will allow Democrats into their discussions, so both parties can work on desperately-needed fixes to ACA. A great start would be telling insurers the Cost Sharing Reduction payments are going to happen. This would stabilize the current situation so they could start working on permanent fixes.

While that would be best for the country, I’m not sanguine about the likelihood that will happen. If Trump et al kill the CSRs, premiums will jump by a lot, and that could be the death knell for individual coverage.

What does this mean for you?

Here’s hoping Congress does some real live work for the people, instead of this symphony of dysfunction we’ve been witnessing for the past few years.

If it does, we’ll be in a whole lot better shape next near.


Jun
27

Tuesday catch-up

I’m going to announce something new tomorrow on the personal front; stay tuned for details…

Until then, here’s what I missed while doing a lot of non-work-related stuff over the last couple of weeks.

Medrisk has launched telerehab, a new service designed to deliver therapy and related services direct to patients at their worksite or home.  I’m a big fan; used appropriately telerehab can help patients heal faster and ensure their home exercises are performed correctly and consistently. (MedRisk is a consulting client).

Medical leadership at Broadspire is changing hands. Dr Marcos Iglesias is taking over from the estimable Dr Jake Lazarovic; Dr Jake has been at Broadspire for as long as I can remember.  He’s always been a pleasure to speak with; humble, highly observant, innovative and focused on always doing the right thing.  Dr Jake has long been one of the good people in our industry.

Dr Iglesias is a friend as well; Marcos has deep experience in occupational medicine as both a provider and insurance company clinical leader.

The first segment of Coventry’s annual drug trend report is out; key takeaways are:

  • opioid utilization dropped 8.5% from 2015 – 2016
  • Average Morphine Equivalents per script decreased 5.6%
  • Total drug costs were down 5.8%

This is yet more evidence that PBMs and payers are doing really good work in cutting employers’ costs and patient risks.  Note to regulators – this is happening across the country; please don’t do things that will hamper PBMs’ efforts to ensure patients get the right drugs.

An excellent review of where the dollars flow in pharma from HealthAffairs; note this is for ALL pharma, not just workers comp or health insurance. (chart from HealthAffairs)

WCRI’s released a series of reports on worker outcomes, following on the heels of an assessment of workers’ comp income benefit adequacy.  WCRI has been focusing on outcomes and worker satisfaction for some time now; kudos to John Ruser and predecessor Rick Victor for this important work.

Finally, a really interesting piece from Harvard Business Review on how some very large employers are dumping health insurers and buying healthcare direct.  I will predict this is going to happen more frequently, and is a big risk for the big four healthplans.  


Jun
26

Health Wonk Review update

Friday I inadvertently left out two excellent posts from long time contributors Hank Stern and Roy Poses Md PhD.

My apologies to these gentlemen, and here’s a very brief UPDATE – with their contributions.

Hank Stern, contributed a post about the Defense Base Act, and a contractor’s…challenges when encountering the Act…DBA is kinda like workers comp without the unlimited benefits…and this poor soul suffered mightily.  Hank delves into the details as to how this could happen.  The brief answer – all too easily.

Healthcare in the occupational arena is often the  forgotten red-headed stepchild of the healthcare world, yet it is a significant issue for both the workers who sustain what can be life altering workplace injuries and employers who bear the full cost burden for medical care and wage replacement. At Workers’ Comp Insider, Tom Lynch offers a primer of best practices in his Eight Steps To Controlling Workers’ Compensation Costs part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Roy Poses provided a different perspective on health care, asking why people with no healthcare background are running health care delivery organizations.  

from Roy’s post…

I believe that managerialism in a health care context (leadership of health care organizations by people with only management training, and without any knowledge, understanding or experience in health care, based only on management dogma) is one of the major causes of health care dysfunction. Here is a great example of a managerialist hospital CEO who also seemed to demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect, that people who lack ability are likely unaware of this lack…To belabor the obvious, true health care reform requires health care leadership that understands health care and upholds its professional values.

An interesting post to juxtapose comes fromJason Shafrin, who asks “Does more spending improve outcomes?” 

number of studies have claimed that increasing health expenditures may result in no better, or even worse patient outcomes.  The Healthcare Economist revisits the topic looking at the case of neonatal ward spending and patient outcomes in the UK.


Jun
23

HWR – The double edition

You get more for your money this fortnight!

The Senate Republicans’ release of their repeal-and-replace bill – plus our usual plethora of wisdom from health care experts, gives you a double-value today – the first in the history of HealthWonkReview!

Part One – Repeal-and-Replace

Let’s be real – Republican Senators’ bill is NOT an ACA replacement, rather it is best understood as a major reduction in Medicaid. For some, that’s all to the good; for others, not so much.

Here’s what you need to know.

(note I looked for other blog posts supporting the Senate bill – if you read any good ones please send them to me)

From Forbes, Avik Roy says

“the Senate bill will have far-reaching effects on American health care: for the better….if you simply kept [some tax credits from the House bill] in force, and tossed overboard the Paul Ryan flat tax credit, you’d solve all of these problems with the House bill. By making that change, the near-elderly working poor would be able to afford coverage, and the poverty trap would be eliminated. [emphasis added]

I wholeheartedly disagree with Roy’s premise. logic, and selective use of data to support his contention. He just doesn’t understand healthcare and the delivery thereof. His contention that eliminating coverage for 20 million Americans is “for the better” is patently absurd.

Andrew Sprung at xpostfactoid cut to the chase – his takeaway is the bill trades Medicaid coverage for high deductible private market coverage.  Andrew quotes Louisiana Republican Senator Cassidy…but notes Cassidy’s sentiment is misleading at best.

Right now, [low income people] might have a $6,000 deductible, which for someone who makes 150 percent of the federal poverty line might as well be $6 million. 

Sprung…

It’s true, as Cassidy avers, that an enrollee with an income of 150% FPL [federal poverty level] might have a $6,000 deductible, but most don’t…In any case, “most of those 20 million” who newly gained coverage did so through the Medicaid expansion and have zero deductible.

Ezra Klein made a similar point even more economically at Vox – “The Senate GOP health bill in one sentence: poor people pay more for worse insurance.”

Margot Sanger-Katz’ New York Times piece entitled G.O.P. Health Plan Is Really a Rollback of Medicaid reminds us of Kaiser Family Foundation reporting that Medicaid covers :

  • 20% of all Americans
  • almost half of all births, and
  • two-thirds of nursing home residents.

David Williams pushes things a bit further with his post, asking if we should consider Medicaid for all. David uses Nevada as a “template” for his assessment of the potential that  when – my words not his – the GOP destroys ACA – there will be an open revolt and we’ll end up with single payer – using Medicaid. 

Compelling case…

Timothy Jost and Sara Rosenbaum on Health Affairs Blog give us “Unpacking The Senate’s Take On ACA Repeal And Replace“; here are a few key quotes…

  • the Senate bill…entirely strikes the House bill and adopts a new bill with a new title.
  • the Senate bill is focused on changes to the Medicaid program.
  • parts of the Senate draft will be challenged under the Byrd rule. (they violate rules allowing passage without 60 votes)
  • the Senate bill would replace the House’s age-based premium tax credits (APTC) with tax credits based on age, income, and the actual cost of health insurance in particular markets.

Wrapping up our Medicaid – ACA – BCRA discussion, AHCA’s unkindest cuts is from healthinsurance.org; The premise:

The attention various AHCA provisions get is inversely proportionate to the damage they’ll do. and that the bill — and its likely Senate counterpart — should properly be called the Medicaid Dismemberment Act.

Nate Silver opines on the likelihood of BCRA’s passage – his considered opinion is: 

I’d guard both against interpretation that the bill will necessarily pass the Senate because it passed the House. At the same time, Ryan and House Republicans overcame some of the same obstacles — and if that precedent isn’t dispositive, it’s at least highly relevant.

Part Two –

UPDATE – apologies to Hank Stern, who contributed a post about the Defense Base Act, and a contractor’s…challenges when encountering the Act…DBA is kinda like workers comp without the unlimited benefits…

Healthcare in the occupational arena is often the  forgotten red-headed stepchild of the healthcare world, yet it is a significant issue for both the workers who sustain what can be life altering workplace injuries and employers who bear the full cost burden for medical care and wage replacement. At Workers’ Comp Insider, Tom Lynch offers a primer of best practices in his Eight Steps To Controlling Workers’ Compensation Costs part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Roy Poses provided a different perspective on health care, asking why people with no healthcare background are running health care delivery organizations.  

from Roy’s post…

I believe that managerialism in a health care context (leadership of health care organizations by people with only management training, and without any knowledge, understanding or experience in health care, based only on management dogma) is one of the major causes of health care dysfunction. Here is a great example of a managerialist hospital CEO who also seemed to demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect, that people who lack ability are likely unaware of this lack…To belabor the obvious, true health care reform requires health care leadership that understands health care and upholds its professional values.

An interesting post to juxtapose comes fromJason Shafrin, who asks “Does more spending improve outcomes?” 

number of studies have claimed that increasing health expenditures may result in no better, or even worse patient outcomes.  The Healthcare Economist revisits the topic looking at the case of neonatal ward spending and patient outcomes in the UK.

Are the exchanges failing? well, depends on who you ask…

Louise Norris has become one of the nation’s leading experts on ACA and exchange matters; she tells us Nevada has a unique approach to their MCO contracts, and the result is that all of their current exchange insurers filed plans for 2018, and two new insurers have also filed QHPs to be sold on the exchange in the fall.

Health Access California’s reports that while Congress considers cuts and caps to Medicaid, California is showing a stark contrast in investing in this core health care program, restoring benefits like dental and vision, and using tobacco tax money to increase provider rates.

CMS Meaningful Use Payments to Providers: Incentives or Sophie’s Choice?is what I love about HWR; really smart, intelligent, deep thinking about what really drives healthcare.

For healthcare providers who are caught in the Meaningful Use regulatory net by participating in the program, they were given a choice between installing an electronic health record system, attesting to meeting a list of nearly-impossible targets to get reimbursement for their multi-million dollar investments, or choosing not to participate which resulted in losing participation in government-funded programs and incentives. Most providers bit. They had no choice. And when it came time to collect the Meaningful Use incentive dollars, they attested to meeting at least the minimum requirements. Now, the government has bitten back asking for repayments of $729 million.

This is Neil Versel’s obituary of Larry Weed, who invented the problem-oriented medical record and the SOAP note, and had been advocating for the computerization of medicine and the inclusion of patients for at least 60 years. One of the leading change agents in healthcare, and one we would do well to think about as we try to drive change

Adam Fein’s entry focuses on the wonders of charity care, and providers thereof.  I did not know that “Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Operate the Biggest U.S. Charities…”

Dr Fein’s post says in part:

growth [of Patient Assistance Programs] is linked to pharmacy benefit designs that shift prescription costs to patients. Many insured patients face economically-debilitating coinsurance—in some cases with no limit on out-of-pocket expenses. The programs are an imperfect, but necessary, fix to our imperfect drug channel system.

Finally, I wondered why the Senate Republicans were so secretive about their healthcare bill, and now we know.

From HealthAffairs blog, a trenchant piece reflecting on the ways the AHCA would harm efforts to address the opioid crisis includes this

Because of the ACA, an estimated 26 million people have health coverage through the marketplaces or Medicaid that includes substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and prevention…Repealing the ACA will remove coverage for SUD treatment and prevention from millions of Americans, leaving a gap in care when it is most needed.

Whew…

Thanks for reading, and hope your weekend is splendiferous!


Jun
22

The Senate version of AHCA – What to watch for

Senate Republicans are set to release their revised American Health Care Act today – here’s what we know about their version, and what to watch for.

An excellent summary is here.

Medicaid – the biggest, most significant, and most important changes are to Medicaid.

74 million Americans are covered by Medicaid, and about 2/3rds of Medicaid funds go to elderly and disabled Americans.  Reportedly the Senate bill will:

  • eliminate Medicaid expansion funds over several years, and
  • significantly reduce future federal funding for Medicaid

As a result, more than 14 million low-income, disabled, and elderly Americans will lose coverage for nursing home care, rehabilitation, and all other healthcare services.

Individual and employer mandate

The mandate would be effectively repealed by eliminating enforcement. Today individuals and employers with more than 50 FTEs have to provide coverage or pay a penalty. Note – there has never been a requirement that employers with fewer than 50 workers provide insurance.

Insurance subsidies for lower-income Americans

The Senate version reportedly has preserved some of the current income-based subsidy provisions, unlike the House bill.

Pre-existing condition coverage

Cloudy would best describe what we know about the Senate bill’s approach to ensuring people with pre-existing conditions are covered. There just aren’t enough details, however even if pre-ex conditions must be covered, it appears insurers will be able to charge much higher premiums for those with pre-ex conditions, and/or exclude treatment for those conditions from their insurance policies.

Benefits

There are mandatory benefits in ACA; these would be eliminated in the Senate version, so your insurance plan might not cover mental/behavioral health and addiction coverage, and/or coverage for different types of care such as physical therapy or hospital services. While this provision would likely reduce premiums, it reduces coverage as well.

Tax changes and the federal deficit

All ACA-related tax increases are repealed with the exception of the Cadillac tax on high-value insurance plan, a change that will substantially increase the federal deficit.

Unforeseen implications – job loss

There’s been far too little coverage of one of the most important impacts of AHCA – the loss of close to a million jobs if this is signed into law. While employment would increase over the very-near term, over the next few years it will drop as fewer people have insurance and thus can’t get care.

What does this mean for you?

Millions of Americans will lose their health insurance, smaller hospitals will close, and cost shifting will explode as providers try to stay in business.

I don’t see the bill – in it’s current form – passing. But we are close to ACA’s death than we were a few weeks ago.


Jun
16

Why are Senate Republicans hiding their health care bill?

OK, let’s set aside the partisanship to objectively consider that question.

Senate Republicans are writing a bill in secret that would:

  • change one-sixth of our economy,
  • cause at least 20 million Americans to lose health insurance,
  • eliminate thousands of jobs in healthcare, and 
  • significantly change the insurance many of the rest of us have.

Many Republican Senators have yet to see the bill. HHS Secretary Tom Price has not seen the bill. The President has not seen the bill. The Wall Street Journal is upset with the process. The Conservative Review reports Orrin Hatch (UT), the second-highest ranking Republican Senator hasn’t seen the bill.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell has crafted a process to repeal-and-replace ACA that:

  • eliminates Senate requirements for debate,
  • doesn’t allow members of his own party or any Senate committee to review the bill before it hits the floor, and
  • avoids an accurate assessment by the Congressional Budget Office.

When ACA was passed back in 2009, there was:

  • 25 days of open public debate on the floor of the Senate
  • 13 days of open committee hearings
  • consideration of hundreds of amendments
  • months of meetings of the Gang of Six – three Republican and three Democratic Senators

Then-Minority Leader McConnell had this to say about ACA’s passage in 2009:

“This massive piece of legislation that seeks to restructure one-sixth of our economy is being written behind closed doors, without input from anyone, in an effort to jam it past not only the Senate but the American people…”

What does this mean for you?

Are you OK with this?


Jun
15

Concentra’s telemedicine move – part 2

Here’s the rest of my interview with Keith Newton, Concentra CEO.  Part 1 is here.

MCM – How has the market reacted to the launch of telemedicine?

Newton – Early adopters are coming on board; like other new services in work comp, everyone wants it then there’s a bit of a lag after initial launch [as the more cautious wait to see what happens]. Most of big players – TPAs and insurers – are [looking at or considering] coming on board. It is much easier to adopt [internet-based medical “visits”] if it is as familiar as possible to all users. Adoption will be faster if there’s less disruption to the normal medical process.

MCM – How will Concentra charge for this service?

Newton – There will be no change to reimbursement, it is based on normal fees for office visits. Payers will see savings in efficiency and time savings for employer. [There may be] Other savings from lower ancillary costs from lower utilization.

MCM – Talk about licensure and regulatory compliance. There’s a lot of movement towards telemedicine in many states, and it seems a lot of confusion about what is allowed, what entity regulates TM, fees, etc.

Newton – There have been some licensure and certification challenges, we have 5 coordinators doing intake for 4 full-time MDs dedicated to this to begin; 2 in CA, 1 in MD, 1 in NV. One example is we have a Maryland physician driving to one of our Washington DC centers to do their Telemedicine work from there…[we’ve done] lots of regulatory compliance work.

State regulations aren’t keeping up with changes in telemedicine. We evaluated this on a state by state basis, every legislative branch has something going on with telemedicine.

MCM – Is this partially a defensive strategy to protect Concentra’s occ medicine business?

Newton – We’ve got to protect our turf a little bit…there could be some cannibalization of own practice, but ultimately we know 1 of 8 workers will access a Concentra practice for injury care – and telemedicine will enable us to add more of those visits without bricks and mortars expansion and the expense of that.

Our goal by the end of the year is 320+ centers and 100 dedicated worksites.

What does this mean for you?

I expect telemedicine is going to be the next big thing – and unlike a lot of the other fads we’ve seen in comp, it will have a major disruptive effect.

 

 

 


Jun
14

Concentra’s major move into telemedicine

The largest occupational medicine company in the nation is jumping into telemedicine.

CEO Keith Newton and I spoke last week about Concentra’s rollout of its telemedicine program, following up on our in-depth discussion a month ago about the company’s plans and strategy.

The first patient interactions began a couple weeks ago with a limited rollout, and so far, patient reaction has been quite positive.  According to Newton, one of the first patients said “I love it so much I’m going to tell all my coworkers about it”.

Concentra is employing third-party technology vendor American Well’s web application to allow patients to “visit” Concentra’s physicians via the internet.

Here’s part one of our conversation.

MCM – What is Concentra’s approach to telemedicine today?

Newton – Our initial approach is to use telemedicine for [some] injury care and follow up rechecks with existing patients.  We have identified specific types of cases where [we will employ] telemedicine initially. Patients will be triaged 24/7 to an injury coordinator, then to an MD for secondary triage, then care [if appropriate via telemedicine]. We are also going to do PT and specialist care. There are a number of considerations including onsite staffing, load balancing, and reducing patient wait times. 20% or so of patients could be seen via telemedicine…California is our first state, we are initially doing visits from 7am – 11 pm; we’ll will add longer hours and multiple states over time.

MCM – Describe the technology you are using.

Newton -We met with 10-15 technology companies working in telemedicine to learn as much as possible. We are using American Well for the connection only, all back-end applications are internal Concentra applications so we access their technology…it is not an integration but using their tech for the “visit” and using Concentra’s Allscripts and Occusource internal applications for documentation [and other functions].

MCM – How are telemedicine interactions different from office visits?

Newton – You need the right intake coordinators and physicians. In a bricks and mortar setting [normal live office visit] there is lots of activity going on in the clinic. When you are on video it is just you and the patient, the doctors have to engage and show focus on the patient, connect with them one-on-one, maintain eye contact.That puts the patient at ease. This may make for better and stronger patient – physician relations and connections via telemedicine. It could also make in-person visits more productive and satisfying for patients and providers as they adopt that behavior for live encounters as well.

 

MCM – Tell me about the process Concentra used to prepare to see patients via telemedicine.

Newton – Internally we did about a hundred “mock visits” to make it as seamless as possible to make sure patient experience was made as successful as possible. [We] used internal staff as testers to provide feedback, improve the process and service. There will be continuing evolution; there are new tools arriving every day, some of which may be useful for incorporation into the telemedicine process. Things will look different in a few months – for now, we are looking to make it as simple as possible for any stakeholder – the payer employer or patient.

Tomorrow we’ll get into more details…

What does this mean for you?

Telemedicine is going to be highly disruptive to care delivery models, and has broad implications for all stakeholders. 

 


Jun
13

Acquisitions in Work Comp – what’s (not) happening today and why

After a seemingly-unending flood of deals that stretched for several years, mergers and acquisition activity in the work comp services sector slowed a lot last year.

There was a brief flurry of activity after the election, a flurry that – with some exceptions – seems to have come to an end.

What’s going on?

Several things.

First, the workers’ comp industry is mature; service sectors have consolidated and there just isn’t a lot of “organic” growth – growth driven by an expanding industry. Software, artificial intelligence, drones – these are rapidly growing industries, where investors see opportunities for investments to generate huge returns.

That’s not to say there aren’t work comp companies growing by taking share from competitors, acquiring other companies, and expanding their service lines. Genex is one example; the company is buying up competitors and diversifying within a fairly narrow service sector.

Second, there are far fewer companies to acquire.  One example is the PBM (pharmacy benefit management) industry has really consolidated of late, with Optum and Express Scripts now the dominant companies in what used to be a highly fragmented industry. 13 years ago when CompPharma started there were perhaps a dozen PBMs with appreciable market share. Today, there are less than half that number.

The same has happened in bill review, utilization review, specialty services, and every other sector.

External factors not directly related to workers’ comp are also at work; perhaps none more important than the mindset of powerful people.

While CEOs are enthusiastic about potential business growth, their Boards are much more cautious.  Overall, US M&A activity came to a screeching halt after the election, dropping 40% since the peak in 2013. This is significant because corporate boards are populated by investors, bankers, former CEOs, and other luminaries tasked with the long-term success of their company, not short term headline-grabbing deals.

There are a couple of recent transactions in our space that make a lot of sense – PBM Express Scripts’ purchase of myMatrixx is one example. MItchell has been buying up smaller PBMs and other companies as it continues to pursue a sale of the company.  And investors are continuing to look for potential acquisitions; I hear from private equity firms looking for the next breakout service provider pretty much every week.

Countering the caution are a couple drivers that may not be as apparent to the casual observer.

There is a shipload of private equity money looking for deals, and PE firms need to use that money to buy companies. European funds are at an eight-year high and we aren’t far behind on this side of the pond.

Interest rates are still low; while they’ve trended up of late, compared to historical averages money is still cheap.

What’s the net?

Expect smaller deals to keep happening, but there’s much less enthusiasm for the mega-deals in workers’ comp services.