http://www.joepaduda.com/ A weblog by Joseph Paduda en-us jpaduda@healthstrategyassoc.com 2012-05-16T07:22:09-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002330.html Earlier this month a physician legislator in Missouri blocked a bill setting up a prescription drug monitoring program, making MO one of two remaining states without a PDMP. Oh, and the Show-Me state's death rate from drug overdose (most of... 2330@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Pharmacy, PBMs, and Pharma costs 2012-05-16T07:22:09-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002337.html That's the figure reported by Milliman earlier today. Yep, almost twenty-one grand just for health insurance and out-of-pocket costs. The good news (!) is the annual rate of increase was a paltry 6.9%, the lowest trend in a decade. The... 2337@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Manage Care - Group Health 2012-05-15T19:21:24-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002336.html Late on Friday the true work comp nerds stuck around for the research workshop, while the smarter NCCI attendees headed home or hit the golf course. Barry Lipton led off with the latest info on NCCI's research into temporary total... 2336@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Workers Comp 2012-05-14T05:44:54-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002331.html Current Florida Insurance Commissioner and NAIC Chair Kevin McCarty led off his talk with a description of drug repackaging as a "license to steal.". I absolutely agree. He expressed optimism when noting the legislative effort will continue next year; on... 2331@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Property and Casualty 2012-05-11T11:14:42-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002335.html We're drinking from the firehose that is Bob Hartwig's annual discussion of economic factors affecting the property and casualty industry. His presentation was - as usual - high energy and entertaining. Example - noting that a Greek default would have... 2335@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Property and Casualty 2012-05-10T11:19:29-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002334.html This was the tenth year NCCI Chief Actuary Dennis Mealy gave the State of the Line presentation (I'll post the link when it's available). Claim frequency - on an adjusted basis - was down slightly (a single point). This continues... 2334@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Workers Comp 2012-05-10T09:18:40-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002333.html And presenting the best and brightest from the health wonk-o-sphere in this week's edition of Health Wonk Review at InsureBlog. A quick read.... 2333@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Health Wonk Review 2012-05-10T09:13:23-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002332.html (I'll be live blogging from NCCI again this year with several updates throughout the day) Higher combined ratios, spotty market hardening, spikes in medical costs, ups and downs in claim frequency, more hiring in some sectors - for whatever reason,... 2332@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Workers Comp 2012-05-10T08:38:12-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002329.html The Annual Issues Symposium starts tomorrow, and here's what's on tap. The highlight for fellow work comp geeks is the State of the Line Report, the annual update on results, cost drivers, and trends delivered by top actuary Dennis Mealy,... 2329@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Workers Comp 2012-05-08T06:54:42-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002328.html Steven Colbert's one of the funnier people/newscasters out there - and his piece on "Debt Panels" [opens video] is terrific. Colbert helps us understand the role of finance in the emergency medicine department, a role that has grown significantly over... 2328@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Health Care Issues 2012-05-07T08:13:22-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002327.html In what will be one of the more entertaining episodes in Presidential campaigning, GOP presumptive nominee Mitt Romney will have to disavow his success in passing health reform in Massachusetts that now looks to be a major success. Reform was... 2327@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Health Policy 2012-05-05T12:12:43-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002323.html When it comes to health reform, perhaps the only thing Congressional Republicans agree on is they hate ObamaCare. There's no agreement on a basic framework much less consensus on an actual bill. Moreover, there are parts of ObamaCare that enjoy... 2323@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Health Policy 2012-05-02T11:44:44-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002326.html Today's NYT arrived with the news that injecting steroids is not much more effective in treating back pain than injecting saline. Yet one of the most common approaches to "treating" back pain is the epidural steroid injection (ESI), with tens... 2326@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Research 2012-05-01T06:42:33-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002325.html Last week's post on the recent release of Annual Reports by PBMs Progressive, PMSI, and Express Scripts, got me thinking (spurred by a friend's query); if PBMs produce these reports as a matter of course, why don't other specialty medical... 2325@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Workers Comp 2012-04-30T10:44:40-05:00 http://www.joepaduda.com/archives/002324.html While Coventry's work comp division revenues were pretty much flat quarter over quarter, the company views the results as better than expected. . In comments during this morning's Q1 2012 earnings call, CFO Randy Giles said Coventry had experienced "higher... 2324@http://www.joepaduda.com/ Workers Comp 2012-04-27T08:09:58-05:00