Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
It’s August. Things are supposed to be slowing down, as record heat waves hit the south central part of the nation, vacations thin out offices and shorten commuting times, and parents rejoice that their beloved offspring – and their detritus … Continue reading The Health Policy Heat Wave
Read More...WCRI’s just published another in their excellent series of reports benchmarking workers comp costs and outcomes in key states. This latest, entitled “PRESCRIPTION BENCHMARKS, 2ND EDITION: TRENDS AND INTERSTATE COMPARISONS”, provides additional insight into the difference in cost between drugs … Continue reading Physician dispensing – Exactly how much more does it cost?
Read More...There’s good news and bad news in the latest projections on health care costs; last year, US health spending increased a mere 3.9 percent, due largely to the recently ended recession (people lost health insurance, and those who still had … Continue reading Medical cost trends – good news, and bad
Read More...One big reason – physician dispensing of repackaged drugs. Two stories, seemingly unrelated, appeared in the last week or so that, when read together, clearly lay out the problem. One described the costs borne by Florida’s employers, costs much higher … Continue reading Why Florida’s work comp costs are heading up
Read More...This morning’s NYTimes has a heart-crushing story about a town in Ohio devastated by abuse of OxyContin and other prescription narcotics. Here’s what prescription drug abuse has done to Ohio. – in 2007, deaths from prescription drug abuse (PDA) in … Continue reading Prescription drug abuse – are you complicit?
Read More...That’s a question I’m hearing more often these days, often one of the first voiced by payers wondering why their medical cost trends are escalating. I’m not sure that’s the right question to ask in most instances, but the answer … Continue reading Workers comp bill review – what should your savings be?
Read More...The ongoing and far-from-resolved debate about whether or not health reform will erduce costs has generated lots of fear-mongering, wildly inflated claims, and far too little intelligent discussion. Jonathan Cohn’s attempt to add a bit more intelligence to that discussion … Continue reading Health reform and Medicare cost reduction
Read More...A couple weeks ago I started what was going to be a discussion of how we should ‘fix’ health reform that was intended to run on consecutive days – only to have that sidetracked by goings-on in the health, political, … Continue reading Fixing health reform – Part Two, Medical Loss Ratios
Read More...Here in no particular order is what I can recall (and am allowed to post) from the last couple days at the comp conference. First off, more activity, more smiles, more enthusiasm than I’ve seen in several years at the … Continue reading The work comp conference – more buzz…
Read More...I has the honor of co-presenting with CWCI’s Alex Swedlow at the Casualty Actuary Society’s annual meeting this morning. Alex shared the results of CWCI’s latest research into California’s work comp system, and in particular the impact of Schedule II … Continue reading What’s driving California’s comp costs
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