Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
Colleague Bob Laszewski has ferreted out a couple of health care-related items from Sarah Palin’s brief tenure as Governor of Alaska. One is her push to eliminate Certificate of Need requirements for building health care facilities, the other calls for … Continue reading Gov. Sarah Palin on health care
Read More...If you’re looking to build a workers comp network, you’ll want to focus on WC specialists – occ med docs, orthos, neuros, physiatrists, primary care docs, and a smattering of other specialties – along with ancillary care providers. And you … Continue reading Building a work comp network?
Read More...They’re at it again. The latest assault on logic and reasoned debate comes from a physician in California (no longer practicing) who claims: “Low birth weight infants are not counted against the “live birth” statistics for many countries reporting low … Continue reading Debunk – ‘US infant mortality rates aren’t so bad’
Read More...According to market research firm Supplier Relations LLC, the total US surgical appliance and device industry’s revenue for the year 2007 was “approximately $30.4 billion USD, with an estimated gross profit of 46.15%”. Note that this total includes more than … Continue reading How much are we spending on orthopedic implants?
Read More...I’m honored to once again Hank Stern’s Cavalcade of Risk, a kinda sorta departure from the usual stuff I do with MCM. [One caveat – I tried to use the auto-poster app, and the weird spacing results resulted from that … Continue reading Cavalcade of Risk
Read More...A few weeks ago I wrote about the big profits hospitals get from workers comp, and closed with the observation that comp payers are overpaying hospitals. The question is why? Glad you asked. Since OUCH (predecessor organization to First Health, … Continue reading Comp networks and hospital costs
Read More...The recent CONCORD report on cancer survival rates has been used by some on the right to support their contention that the US health care system is superior; according to Catron, the “much-maligned U.S. health care system is the best … Continue reading The use of torture in statistics
Read More...There are those on both sides of the political debate (and some who fancy themselves in the middle) who use anecdotes, scary stories, hyperbole and highly elastic versions of ‘true’ stories to support their solutions to our present health care … Continue reading Cheap fast or good – pick one
Read More...In today’s earnings announcement, AmerisourceBergen, parent company of work comp PBM/ancillary services firm PMSI, detailed the financial impact of the deal. ABC carried PMSI on the books at about $260 million; by selling the property for $40 million (plus a … Continue reading PMSI sale – the numbers
Read More...Pundits (myself included) are detecting a sea change on the Hill – the health plans’ power meter is just barely registering while physicians are pegging the needle. If you’re wondering why physicians were so adamantly opposed to the Medicare reimbursement … Continue reading Docs are fighting mad, ready for war, and they’ve got big guns
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