Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
Immigrants Contributed An Estimated $115.2 Billion More To The Medicare Trust Fund Than They Took Out In 2002–09 – that’s the headline from a piece in Health Affairs this month. “immigrants may be disproportionately subsidizing the Medicare Trust Fund, which supports payments … Continue reading Immigrants and health care – who’s paying, who’s getting
Read More...While workers’ comp premiums have been increasing steadily for two years, the industry is still not profitable. Why not? There are a bunch of pluses and minuses influencing profitability; premiums were up 7 percent in 2012, driven by higher rates … Continue reading Workers’ comp rates are up, but still no profit.
Read More...Among the hundreds of pages of the PPACA are passages addressing provider fraud, a far-too-common and far-too-costly issue that has long plagued the program. The good news is, things seem to be getting better. CMS just reported they recovered a … Continue reading PPACA/Obamacare and Medicare fraud
Read More...The next scam improvement in patient care and physician profits is… in-office lab testing for drugs!!! I’m not talking qualitative testing (the cup version) but rather tests done on a machine in a physician’s office. I received this email not … Continue reading The next revenue-generator for work comp profiteers
Read More...There’s much confusion about the “costs” of Obamacare, with some opining that health insurance costs will explode and others citing recent data indicating the opposite. This is a blog post, and therefore I won’t write, and you don’t have time … Continue reading Will Obamacare’s costs break your bank?
Read More...NCCI’s conference is perhaps the best-produced workers comp conference I’ve attended. Great support for speakers (thanks Mona Carter, Peter Burton, Lisa Lancelotti, Linda Simmonds et al), well run, tightly organized, and substantive as well. Several single-state payers I spoke with at the … Continue reading Random observations from NCCI
Read More...Late in 2011 I predicted medical directors would begin to assume more authority and responsibility as workers’ comp insurers/TPAs realized the significance of medical management. Boy was I wrong. My thinking was logical (I know, that was my first mistake); with … Continue reading What happened to the work comp Medical Director?
Read More...This biweekly edition of health Wonk Review covers the recent news that health care cost inflation has moderated, digs into various aspects of ACA implementation, and provides insights on a couple other timely topics. Read on! Health care cost trends … Continue reading HWR on health care cost trends, reform implementation, and motivations
Read More...There appear to be several reasons for the decline in the health care cost inflation rate with a poor economy and resulting job loss and changes in benefit design often cited – rightly – as chief contributors. There’s some fear … Continue reading Health inflation is down – and may stay down
Read More...The second most popular post (6300+ readers )in the 8+ years of MCM was on Obamacare’s RFID chip – a fantasy of conspiracy nuts and the right-wing tinfoil hat crowd. For those who don’t recall, these crazies believe anyone signing up … Continue reading Obamacare RFID chip – the best comments ever.
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