If you ever got the idea that health reform efforts have been treading water for years, if not decades, you will feel vindicated by a recent study on disease management and an article about “shared medical decision-making.” Both of them tell us what we’ve already known for a long time: Chronic disease management, as currently practiced, doesn’t save money or improve the quality of care...
Health Care Industry Archive
February 2009
UnitedHealth Group is not very popular among physicians. Among other things, the insurance giant forced them to take plans they didn’t want in New York and California following mergers with Oxford and PacifiCare, respectively. Last month, United’s Ingenix subsidiary settled a class-action suit and an investigation by New York Attorney General Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. In both cases,...
During the last year, health-care stocks declined less than any of 10 sectors tracked by Standard & Poors, except for consumer staples such as food and household products, according to an AP story. Health stocks dropped an average 21.6 percent in value through the end of January, compared to 19.7 percent for consumables. By contrast, the S&P 500 index fell 40 percent during that...
From the “truth-is-stranger-than-fiction” department: Just as President Obama and the Democratic Congress are getting ready to cut subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans by 15 percent, these companies have increased 2009 premiums to Medicare beneficiaries by 13 percent, on average. That’s five times as much as these charges grew in 2008, according to a study by Avelere Health. By...
The timeline and cost for widespread EHR adoption might be considerably greater than the Obama Administration envisions, according to some health policy experts. President Obama has called for the government to spend $50 billion over five years on health IT, and about $20 billion has been earmarked for that purpose in his economic stimulus package. But some experts, including David Brailer,...
Mergers and acquisitions in health care have dropped off significantly, and there is concern in the private equity sector that they may not come back for a long time. According to a report from Irving Levin Associates in Norwalk, CT, the health-care venture capital market saw a 28 percent drop in funding and an 18 percent decrease in deal volume in 2008, compared with 2007. In Levin’s survey,...
Who are the leading healthcare IT vendors in the U.S.? No sweat if you don’t know — most of these companies are all but unknown outside of the healthcare field. Healthcare IT is in many ways its own cloistered little world, thanks in part to the complexity and regulatory requirements of medical-information systems — not to mention a certain degree of incestuousness in the...
WellPoint, UnitedHealth, Humana socked by medical costs, recession – Several of the country’s biggest health-insurance companies reported dismal results for 2008. UnitedHealth Group saw net income fall 36 percent in the year thanks to a large class-action settlement and decreases in commercial-insurance membership. WellPoint’s net income dropped 26 percent due to higher...
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- Interest Groups Redouble Fight on Healthcare Reform
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- Comparison of Health Reform Bills Reveals Key issues
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- House Health-Care Reform Bill Deserves Public Support
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- Some Health Reform Questions for The President
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- NEJM Roundtable on Health Cost Control Offers Insights
- House Health-Care Reform Bill Deserves Public Support
- No Rationing, Say Experts, But Public Doesn't Hear
- House Health Reform Bill Does Not Please Many in Health Care
- White House Puts Focus On Medicare and Medicaid Fraud
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