So with the high cost of energy and that subsequently driving the cost of many things including delivering goods and services, it is small wonder that healthcare is starting to see people cut back.
I’ve seen a good number of articles already on people allowing their insurance coverage to lapse. They are forgoing the premium cost in an effort to save money. That’s a big short-term gamble. It’s a HUGE long-term gamble. Chances are, if someone drops their coverage, they won’t see a need to pick it back up until, well, they really need it. And then it’s too late.
And people are starting to cut back in other ways, too. In the face of efforts by employers to implement wellness programs and disease management programs, people are starting to act counter to that arguably wise practice. A recent WSJ post documents how Americans have begun to forgo those screenings and …
Just wanted to repost the Pharmaceuticals Cost Variation case study. Without transparency in the industry no one can understand that costs vary as much as 20-40% between major pharmacy chains and 50% from one part of the city to the next.
Download the study by clicking rxpricecasestudy.
People find it hard to believe that healthcare is far more like used car sales than well…even used car sales.
So here comes another article on it from Kiplinger’s on how negotiable those pesky healthcare bills can be. This one talks about a nearly 70% discount on the hospital bill.
“The doctors said he’s comin’, but you’ gotta pay in cash”
-The Eagles
We’ve enjoyed a bit of a free ride for the past several decades when it comes to healthcare. Employers and the government have picked up much of the tab. But now we are starting to pay the price literally. Increasingly we are asked to pay for medical services. Locally, The Tennessean just featured a piece on a doc who is going to charge his patients $1,500 annually to maintain access to him. We had best get used to it.
I have nightmares of other businesses becoming like our current healthcare system. In these night terrors, I go to buy groceries, pay a $20 co-pay and then get the bill 30-45 days later, can’t understand what it is I got, have already consumed the product and am expected to pay far more than I would ever have dreamed it might …
Kudos to the Nashville Business Journal Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Susan Dentzer for her insightful comments on many issues surrounding healthcare at the recent Nashville Healthcare Council gathering.
The attention grabbing headline of her corresponding article about the potential for healthcare to be the next sub-prime mortgage crisis rings true though I’m not sure it can all be pinned on HSAs as she does in her article.
Compare the two industries and beyond the similarities in dollars paid out, there are some disturbing lessons begging to be learned.
Housing runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a family. Healthcare has the potential to do the exact same.
Mortgages can easily hit $1200 per month in expense. And at $1200-1400/month for family healthcare coverage, average healthcare premium costs alone are comparable to the size of a mortgage note for many families.
And houses have to be maintained. You need a new roof …
It is like music to my ears when people talk about the dCard. In case everyones crazy summer plans have caused you to forget about the alarming physician information inconsistencies… here is a brief reminder, and a great highlight from Nashville Medical News.
“Change:healthcare is also tackling a problem that’s been a bugaboo for physicians since the Internet became an overarching source of healthcare information. That problem is information inconsistency. In fact, change:healthcare and a similar technology company in Ohio joined forces to study just how big the problem is. They discovered that selected basic information about several physicians in the two states was wrong as many times as it was right. Thus change:healthcare is one of 12 members of a healthcare-technology consortium that earlier this year helped introduce the dCard – short for Doctor Card. The dCard is a standard format for capturing, maintaining and sharing data about physicians, thus …
Nashville Medical News has written a great story and we wanted to make sure to share it with our readers.
Check it out online at here - Nashville Medical News. Or you may download the (PDF) Healthcare Enterprise: change:healthcare.
Highlights: Today, change:healthcare offers consumers access to a medical bill-management platform as well as other information to help them make educated choices about providers, payers, prescription drugs and more. Earlier this year, the company began the transition from a subscription-based service to a service employers may buy and offer their employees. There are still free services on the site, too.
“Employers are wanting to reconnect with their employees. If they don’t get employees engaged with what their healthcare costs are, they really don’t have any chance of controlling the costs at all,” Hendrick explained. Thus, change:healthcare is reaching out to human-resources departments, benefits consultants and third-party administrators, selling them on the …
In an unexpected move, we are closing 600 of our satellite offices throughout the country. While there will be no impact on our top line, we should see a significant improvement in our bottom line as there will be far fewer Starbucks out there where we can abuse our expense accounts.
Please bear with us during this difficult time and hope for the best as we deal with Christopher’s withdrawals.
The Tennessean highlighted change:healthcare and Data Advantage. Continue to watch as we move into more transparent territory. You can download the pdf new sites help people find the best values in health care
Highlights: “change:healthcare — a startup — recently re-launched its cost ratings tool on the
Web called Medstimate. It uses claims data showing the negotiated prices that providers accept,
plus other patient-submitted information, to create the free service.”
“Robert Hendrick, change:healthcare’s chief operating officer, attributes the shift to more
health-care costs being passed on to consumers through higher co-pays, steeper deductibles
and the requirement to pay a percentage of the cost of services rather than a flat co-pay.”
“Out-of-pocket costs ranked second only to quality data, such as mortality or complication rates in
selecting hospitals, according to survey of 755 respondents by The Advisory Board Co., in
Washington, D.C. Costs were a bigger factor than satisfaction, physician recommendations and
distance.”
Onward and upward!
