Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
in which I cover newsworthy stuff that happened this week… Uh…that’s why you buy insurance From Politico we hear CMS Administrator Seema Verna asked us taxpayers to pay for $47,000 worth of jewelry and other stuff stolen “during a work-related … Continue reading Hyper-expensive moisturizer, uninsured jewelry, drug prices, and those costly hospital mergers
Read More...Where you sit determines what you see; this adage applies to the work comp industry. For payers, employers, and taxpayers, all is great. Rates are low and dropping, insurers are enjoying record profits, frequency continues to trend down, medical costs … Continue reading Workers comp is A) doing great, or B) a big problem
Read More...The takeaway from the American Hospital Association’s “study” of hospital mergers is NOT that mergers are good for patients, employers, and taxpayers. It is that all of us should be skeptical readers of research conducted/paid for by entities that have … Continue reading No, hospital mergers do NOT reduce your costs
Read More...For a relatively small industry, there sure are a ton of conferences. From WCRI to NCCI to AASCIF to CSIA to CLM to PRIMA to NWCDC to SIIA to WCI360 to RIMS to AFERM to the ExecuSummit and dozens of … Continue reading Conference overload
Read More...Here’s what else was happening last week while we were tracking One Call’s financial troubles… Who’s for Medicare For All? Who wants to “abolish private health insurance in favor of a public run plan?” That was the question asked of … Continue reading Key takeaways from what happened last week
Read More...NCCI started with a terrific video featuring several people who suffered significant occupational injuries – and how work comp helped them recover. The video was really well done…kudos to NCCI and their partners for publicizing the good work done by … Continue reading NCCI – final takeaways
Read More...Dr David Deitz moderated a panel of physicians tasked with describing the role of primary care in workers’ comp. Ed Bernacki, Jill Rosenthal of Zenith, and Will Gaines of Baylor Scott&White Health participated. The takeaways – Primary care for occupational … Continue reading Work comp – the physicians’ view
Read More...And to kick it off, here are quick facts about work comp pharmacy… Total workers’ comp drug spend was about $4 billion last year. Others will argue it’s much higher, after 15 years of digging into the data I’m quite … Continue reading It’s work comp pharmacy week at MCM
Read More...or the longer version…What does this have to do with workers’ comp? I hear that far too often, usually when talking with a work comp exec about Medicare reimbursement changes, the number of workers without health insurance, MS-DRGs, Medicaid expansion, … Continue reading So what?
Read More...A few possible contributors – more providers than average – which creates demand, facility costs – and declining quality – due to significant healthcare system consolidation, attorney fees driven in large part by regulatory enablement, creative providers looking to suck … Continue reading Why are California’s work comp costs so high?
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