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.
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 …
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!
Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the Mass State Health Plan deadline requiring most individuals to carry health insurance. Though the insurance law has been praised by some and criticized by others, Drew Altman president of the Kaiser Family Foundation believes the law falls somewhere in the middle.
So what’s the main problem, and everyone’s number one concern? COST… go figure.
The USA TODAY article Mass. Pioneering Health Plan turns 1 highlights some of the plans successes and failures. The success story highlights a woman who had lost coverage when she lost her job and was able to get coverage discounted through the state. Lucky - she was even able to get coverage after being diagnosed with cancer. She is now in remission!
Failures? Well the article doesn’t do a very good job of examining this side. They touch on a woman who is …
Once again I had the privilege this morning to hear Sen. Bill Frist speak, this time at a breakfast held at Lipscomb University. Though last time the topic was highly focus, today the slate was clear and anything to do with health care was on the table. Although our time was limited, Frist managed to cover a lot of important topics and share his vast amount of experience and knowledge with us in the crowd.
The conversation began with a reminder that the US, compared to other countries, ranks poorly when it come to life expectancy and infant mortality, despite spending twice as much as other comparable countries. Why is that? Well consider what makes up health and life expectancy: 40% Life style and Behavior, 30% Genetics, 15% Socioeconomic status, 10% Health Services and Technology, 5% Environment. Unless you have been living under a rock, its no shock… we live in …
Check out the Nashville Business Journal from Friday. Startup surfs transparency wave. Because you cannot read the whole article online… Click here to download the .pdf.
Highlights:
“The company has radically revamped its online Medstimate service, which discloses pricing for services from more than 1.5 million doctors and hospitals and price ranges for more than 10,000 medical services.”
“Customers can use Medstimate to reveal price transparency on everything from major surgery to a month’s supply of medication. For example, a Medstimate search shows price ranges at local hospitals for colon cancer treatment vary greatly, depending on the hospital. At Vanderbilt University Hospital, the range is $49,054 to $53,653. At Saint Thomas Hospital it’s $22,258 to $24,344.”
“Hendrick says he’s not trying to persuade consumers to always go for the least expensive alternative because there can be valid reasons for paying more. But the information derived from a …
If you have ever wondered what would be a reasonable price for a medical service, you are not alone. Millions of Americans, especially those who are uninsured, walk into doctors offices every year with no idea of how much their care will cost. That’s a scary feeling, especially if you have to pay for all of it on your own, or if you are unsure how much of the costs your insurance company will cover.
How many people go to get their car repaired without knowing how much it will cost? Or without checking around for high quality, reasonably priced auto shops? I feel it’s safe to assume not very many. Why should our health care be any different? I would argue its more important than your auto repair.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Benjamin Brewer, Even Doctors Guess At Health Charges, asks …
Well… kinda. Yesterday was a Nashville Health Care Council luncheon titled “Financing the Deal.” (Ex-) Senator Dr. Bill Frist was the moderator for the panel of financial industry health care analysts. Some were from the venture capital arena, some were from banking and others from equity firms.
There was decent discussion regarding the money available in health care today for small companies looking to do something innovative that increase productivity and efficiency. I wanted to share with you the main points I drew from the discussion, in case anyone else out there is working their butts off in a start-up/entrepreneurial company in health care.
The following list comes in no particular order (other than what’s freshest in my memory):
Check out this great story published in the Williamson A.M (Tennessean) about Christoper.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804290319
You can also download a PDF of the article.
Out of Tragedy, a Commitment to Change Healthcare is Born
When both of Christopher Parks' parents passed away within a year of each other in 2006, he was left with more than just grief.
