Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
I noted a couple weeks ago the problems pharmacies in Texas have been encountering with Part D – slow pays, no pays, missing information, higher staffing costs, and the like. Now word comes that California pharmacies seem to be suffering … Continue reading Part D’s failure is good news for pharmacies
Read More...I am no economist. Some will likely howl in agreement, others knowingly nod their heads while tapping out their pipes so as to not get ash on their tweeds (them are the economists). I do know a good bit about … Continue reading What does Baumol’s cost disease have to do with medical inflation?
Read More...The law of unintended consequences continues to dog the much-maligned Part D program. So far, seniors and states have been depicted as the primary victims of the program’s operational, structural, and marketing faults. Now there’s news that the program’s impact … Continue reading Pharmacists, Part D, and politics
Read More...The “Wal-Mart” legislation on the docket in over 20 states is pushing some pro-business advocates into a Hobbesian choice – support Wal-Mart and other opponents of mandatory benefits legislation, thereby adding thousands to Medicaid rolls, or support the legislation and … Continue reading Wal-Mart’s difficult position
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...There are lots of moving parts, political agendae, and battling priorities in the pay for performance movement, and it is getting even complicated-er. Today’s announcement by the AMA that it will produce metrics for assessment of physician quality (registration required) … Continue reading Health care quality measures, politics, and dollars
Read More...When the (registration required) FDA approves new medical devices for specific conditions, insurers are almost always required to cover them. Even if the approval makes no sense, the device fails in clinical trials, and there is no conclusive evidence of … Continue reading FDA OK’s, Insurers Pay
Read More...I’ve been avoiding posting on this because there are so many smart people who know a lot more than I about epidemiology, flu transmission, viral mutation, and public health. Thank goodness for that. But, a post by Revere at EffectMeasure … Continue reading Bird flu – the Katrina of the health insurance industry?
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...Director of the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services Mark McClellan was up on Capitol Hill yesterday testifying on Part D, conveying the message that all was going better, improvements were being made, and the cost of the program was lower than … Continue reading McClellan’s rose colored glasses
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