Posts tagged as:

hospitals

If You Knew the Price…

Image Courtesy of SqueakyMarmot on Flickr
“If you knew what the price of items were at Wal-Mart before you went into the store to buy them, it would put Wal-Mart out of business.”
That has to be one of the single most insane statements ever written.Yet that’s exactly what many doctors and hospitals would have you believe [...]

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Planning & Implementation for Healthcare Reform is Like Herding Cats

Image from Mike Moreu
As long as we’re herding cats on healthcare reform, let’s ask a critical question…What is the timing for the changes being made for healthcare reform? Not “when will it get passed” but rather “when will the changes, whatever they end up being, go into effect”?
Logistically, it’s a nightmare.
Healthcare Reform Will NOT be [...]

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Illinois Law is Step 1 for Uninsured

As of April 1 in Illinois, they have taken step 1 in protecting the uninsured. A new law caps uninsured patient bills at cost +35%.
Hooray! A good first step!
Now don’t rest on your laurels, Illinois.
Cost plus is great if you can understand the “costs” portion, but most patients do not. Step 2 is to root [...]

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The Fiscal Health of U.S. Hospitals

Thursday’s Healthpopuli post caught my eye – Hospitals’ fiscal health is eroding. More than 50% of hospitals had a negative margin in Q4 2008. Sounds like the hospitals need wellness and disease management programs to address their ailing health just like patients are getting.
The main reason cited in Healthpopuli for the poor fiscal health is that [...]

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Balance Billing

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.

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