Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
The only demonstrable impact of facility consolidation is higher prices. There’s also solid evidence that more concentrated health care markets are associated with lower health care quality. While the number of deals dropped by about 21% in the first half … Continue reading More hospital consolidation = higher prices
Read More...Here’s what happened last week… People who enroll in exchange programs in red states pay 3.2 percent more for their health insurance than folks in purple or blue states. Research indicates it is because fewer folks in red states sign … Continue reading Monday update – healthcare costs, guidelines, what docs want, and market consolidation
Read More...Hospitals, health care systems, large multi-specialty groups – all are getting bigger by buying each other, merging, or snapping up smaller hospitals and physician practices. Providers smart/fortunate enough to be inside these mega-systems enjoy pricing power, strong brand recognition, and … Continue reading The impact of provider consolidation
Read More...There’s been a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the work comp arena, and certainly more to come. But the activity in our little corner is minor indeed compared to what’s happening in the “real world” – group health, Medicaid, and … Continue reading Consolidation in the real world – implications for workers’ comp
Read More...With OneCall getting ever larger, KKR buying TPAs and tech companies, EXAM Works’ consolidation of the IME business all but complete, and the private equity world’s seemingly insatiable appetite for work comp services assets, the continued consolidation of the work … Continue reading The work comp service market’s response to consolidation
Read More...Over the last few years, there’s been increasing consolidation among health care providers – hospitals buying physician practices, health care systems merging, hospitals ‘partnering with’ other hospitals. Overall, consolidation of providers has led to better health outcomes but had also … Continue reading Provider consolidation – higher prices, better outcomes
Read More...A well-placed industry exec shot me a note late last week re yet another TPA deal; Ohio-based Avizent will buy FARA, a Louisiana-based TPA. Terms weren’t available, but there’s a bit of an outcry over the deal from some folks … Continue reading Work comp TPAs; more consolidation
Read More...Stratacare’s (relatively) new owners are delivering on their commitment to growing the company; they will be acquiring Marsh’s CS STARS MedBillPro operation. Paul Glover et al (Stratacare leadership) has been aggressively on the hunt for new business; they were finalists … Continue reading Consolidation in the work comp bill review business
Read More...Here’s another one of those posts that is really really interesting to very very few people. Third party billers are factors – they buy WC script receivables from pharmacy chains and try to collect from WC payers. The two TPBs … Continue reading Consolidation in the third party biller business
Read More...The state legislation that will MOST affect workers’ comp is often not ABOUT workers’ comp – rather it deals with other parts of the healthcare ecosystem. For example: Regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers FromWaPo: At least 41 state legislatures introduced bills … Continue reading State moves that will affect workers’ comp
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