Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
If consumerism is going to help reduce health care cost inflation, we’ll need two things – information and appropriate financial incentives. Actually, we’ll need another ‘thing’ – consumers will need the intelligence and expertise to be able to make the … Continue reading The two reasons consumerism won’t solve the health care cost problem
Read More...This is the premiere edition of Health Wonk Review, a biweekly (or so) compendium of the best of the health policy blogs. We’ve asked over two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology and managed care bloggers to send in their … Continue reading UPDATE – Health Wonk Review
Read More...This is getting tiresome. I am being assailed by economists who protest that they can boil health care down to supply and demand, and that demand creates supply. True on its face, but the economic devils are in the details. … Continue reading Economists, priests, and health care policy
Read More...Price-fixing, the bluntest of economic policy instruments, is enjoying a resurgence among health care policymakers at the national and state levels. In California, Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for physicians have been cut 5%, effective the first of this year. The cut … Continue reading Physician reimbursement cuts
Read More...New information is coming out on consumer directed health plans that indicates member satisfaction rates are significantly lower than those of individuals enrolled in “traditional” health plans. These plans are based on the premise that empowering consumers with information and … Continue reading Consumer directed plan members’ satisfaction rates
Read More...I’ve been keeping my eye on Revolution Health since its founding earlier this year, and the item posted last week about Kaiser’s work on electronic health records reminded me to check back on Revolution’s progress. Why the focus on Revolution? … Continue reading Revolution Health and Kaiser Permanente
Read More...Two items in today’s news indicate the growing significance of data analytics in managing workers comp claims and costs. While there are differences in focus, with Liberty focusing on provider identification and Crawford on claims and case management, Liberty Mutual … Continue reading Liberty Mutual, Crawford, data analysis, and workers comp
Read More...Katrina will have a significant impact on the world insurance markets, and the impact will be felt quickly in the form of higher prices for many property and casualty insurance lines. Here’s how this works. Insurers price their coverage based … Continue reading Katrina’s impact on insurance costs
Read More...Pay for performance is likely to get a big boost from the Federal government. A bill linking physician pay under Medicare to reporting quality data will be introduced in the Senate before the end of the year, the first step … Continue reading Pay for Performance – Medicare initiative
Read More...The two competing economic models of health care are greatly influencing the debate on the future of health care in the US. One, hewing closely to the free-market standard, calls for consumer-driven decisions, free markets open to all investors in … Continue reading Competing models of health care
Read More...