Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
What’s coming is quite clear – there will be more consolidation in the work comp services industry, much of it likely in the next 12 months. Cue Bachman-Turner Overdrive… Workers’ comp is a shrinking industry; while there may well be … Continue reading Consolidation in work comp services – you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Read More...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...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...Yesterday we examined the potential impact on insurers and insureds of a failure to pass meaningful comprehensive health reform . Today we’ll look at the effect on providers. Again, we’ll leave aside the possibility of individual bills addressing physician compensation … Continue reading If health reform fails, part 2 – the providers
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
Read More...Ramona Tanabe, CEO of WCRI – a most excellent workers’ comp research organization – was kind enough to carve out a few minutes on the eve of this year’s gathering of the brainiacs to answer a few of your reporter’s … Continue reading Ramona Tanabe on WCRI’s annual confab.
Read More...Medicare is slashing what it pays physicians, an annual event that – till now – was almost always rejected by Congress. That will reduce old folks’ access to care, cut workers’ comp fee schedules, and likely lead to more provider … Continue reading Signs of the coming apocalypse
Read More...Healthcare costs are about to jump again, driven by exploding staffing expenses, continued healthcare provider consolidation, and the brilliant profiteering by some of the largest (mostly for-profit) healthcare systems. So, what’s a family to do? A few have turned to … Continue reading Healthcare Sharing Ministries – the latest
Read More...In addition to my focus on work comp medical management I’m deeply involved in governmental programs (Medicare/Medicaid/dual eligibles) and related businesses. Here’s a few things work comp would do well to understand/explore/pursue. Auto-adjudication of medical bills – the standard target … Continue reading Things work comp can/should learn
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