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.
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 …
So it would appear that I’m not the only one less than thrilled about the balance billing practices of some hospitals:
Here’s what the WSJ had to say.
So the Mass. attempt at “socialized” healthcare turned one year old today. CONGRATS!
Our resident Bostonians on staff @ change:healthcare, George and Vic, must be so proud. Oh wait, they’ve already fled the state to be here.
Nevertheless the plan seems to be working well according to Julie Appleby of USAToday - residents are getting better coverage…and premium rate increases of 5.1 to 9.4% unless you take the person profiled in the article who got a 45.7% increase in premium over the first year’s premium. Wow! Even the private insurance industry is hard pressed to pull that one off!
An excerpt from the article: “I almost fell on the floor,” says Pelletier, 55, of Newbury. “Costs are getting out of control.”
No kidding.
People will eventually make the connection. The decisions you make regarding their healthcare - when to go, whom to see, and what to pay - are what ultimately determines the …
We are sooooo excited! We are down to the final edits on our upcoming book, My Healthcare is Killing Me.
I know. I hear you Steven Krein, that’s not the name you wanted (congrats on the funding announcement BTW!). Don’t worry change:healthcare will be prominently featured on the cover.
Looks like we are about 3-4 weeks away from having it out in the public eye.
So start lining up for your autographed copies today!
Maybe Steven or our buddy Jay Parkinson and his Hello Health project will set up a book signing for us in NYC!
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 …
Just caught a USA Today article that ran today on California health insurere Health Net being fined $9 million for dropping a patient going through treatment for breast cancer. I applaud the court for having the gumption to take a stand against an insurer engaging in such an unfair practice.
One can only assume that the intent was to punish the insurer and make an example of them so that other insurers would think twice about such a practice in the future. However, there is a side effect to this remedy. That cost will have to be made up somewhere and at someone’s expense. The somewhere will be in the form of increased premiums at the expense of Health Net’s insured.
With insurance, it seems that even when we win, we still lose.
Check out Christopher’s article from yesterdays Tennessean…. so so proud!
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.
