Didn’t know you have to negotiate your hospital bills? Maybe you are a healthy person who rarely gets medical bills or deals with them when they do come. Two of my experiences have shown me that yes, negotiating is possible and has a significant ROI. But the bigger problem with that “solution” for lowering healthcare […]
In Alabama, if you get your health insurance through your employer and you lose your job, you quickly realize there aren't a lot options for purchasing coverage on your own. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama has had a virtual monopoly in the state ...
Break down the silos. Take control of your provider data.
What Castlight Health is to people with employer-provided health insurance, PokitDok is to people with high deductible plans. The new “set your price” service for basic healthcare services may be what “consumer-driven healthcare” needs to become a realistic option instead of doublespeak. On the PokitDok website and mobile app, a consumer can request a service […]
In case you missed it, the "National Commission on Physician Payment Reform" issued their glossy, industry-produced white paper on 4 March 2013 containing twelve recommendations to provide a five-year "blueprint" for transitioning physician payment methods to a "blended payment system that will yield better results for both public and private payers, as well as patients."
First, this is very, very important work. Second, I have recommended these lists to my parents and my friends for help in making treatment decisions. Third, this information should start showing up on Facebook and blogs and search results, but it never will at this rate. Choosing Wisely just added more topics to its lists […]
Recently the Wall Street Journal carried an article headlined “Proton-Beam Treatment for Prostate Tumors No Better Than Radiation” referring to a paper published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Actually the results indicate that while they could see no long term benefit, there was a short term incidence of problems with urinary function. […]
A new report by Paubox calls for healthcare IT leaders to dispose of outdated assumptions about email security and address the challenges of evolving cybersecurity threats.
In Reducing surgical complications: How to make it happen faster, I contrasted the way a hospital gets paid for rework with what happens in a manufacturing environment. In short: when a manufacturing process messes up a product the company doesn’t get paid at all, but when a hospital messes up it tends to get paid [...]
When hospitals purchase free-standing physician offices they often convert them into outpatient clinics. The shift isn’t visible on the surface, but underneath the covers a powerful economic transformation has taken place, with the new owners now able to charge a so-called “facility fee” to cover the cost of their infrastructure. Medicare and commercial health plans [...]
Bloomberg (Unaffordable Cost Seen for Some Under Affordable Care Act) highlights the challenges many of the newly insured will have in paying for coverage, even with the substantial subsidies available to those with lower incomes. The story leads off with the tale of a 28 year old with lymphatic cancer. She and her husband have [...]
One commenter on Dr. Keith Smith’s post about Medicare reimbursementsoutlined the educational investment required to be a doctor as well as the cost of running a practice. Healthcare Realist – a pharmacist in Maryland – explains in this comment the how reimbursement works for independent pharmacies. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) reduced the […]
The home care industry is booming. As Baby Boomers age and more families seek in-home solutions for loved ones, demand for home care services is at an all-time high.
Here are a few questions and answers about what could happen to doctors, patients, and hospitals in the weeks before the end-of-year deadline to avoid the fiscal cliff.
The debate goes on about how much a doctor should make for her services. Healthcare realist says that $47.50/hour for a six-hour surgery is just a convenient talking point with no connection to reality. As usual, the author cherry picks numbers which make his or her argument look good. If we are in agreement with […]
With the publication in the New York Times of how taxes would be affected because of the Affordable Care Act, our health care Happy Meal was officially pulled from the menu. Suddenly, the colorful trinkets and tchotchkes that were the first items pulled from the health care law’s brightly colored bag are now being followed […]
Massachusetts is launching a sweeping plan to hold down health care costs. A new law is partly designed to get patients to help drive down prices by shopping for medical care. So when I had a series of migraines over the summer, I decided this was an...
In the discussion on Dr. Keith Smith’s defense of his right to earn a fair wage, everyone has a theory about why healthcare is so expensive. It’s undoubtedly a combination of profit motive and obesity, among other bad lifestyle choices. RKannan76 suggests in the comments that we consider Milton Friedman’s analysis of whose money we […]