Top 10 blogs for the business of health care
I follow these blogs to keep up on health care financing. Tell me what else I should be reading.
Health Care Costs
Articles
Doctors, as well as patients, in the dark about prices
If you’re frustrated that health care prices are both unavailable and incomprehensible, you’re not alone. Your physician is in the dark too.
Analysis: Obamacare exchanges will push Anthem’s premiums lower
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana expects the average premiums it charges on the health insurance exchanges being created by Obamacare to be about $60 per year less for each of its health plan members than they would have been without the law.
Hospitals aren’t bad guys; they’re just business guys
Even in the face of alarmingly high hospital prices, no one should conclude that hospitals are the bad guys in the health care system. Hospital executives are doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing as the business leaders of their institutions.
Ouch! Indy hospitals charging employers three times more than Medicare
A new study found that Indianapolis-area hospitals are charging patients insured by their employers 264 percent more for outpatient services than the federal Medicare program pays for the exact same services at the same hospitals.
OurHealth readies citywide network of employer clinics
In a bid to make employer-sponsored health clinics available to companies of all sizes, Indianapolis-based OurHealth will open a network of seven offices around Indianapolis next year.
Only now is Pence team starting Medicaid talks
Gov. Mike Pence’s go-slow approach could push an expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Indiana to the end of 2014. And he’s OK with that.
Which Indy hospitals do it right the first time?
Medicare data show some county-owned hospitals around Indianapolis scored better than big-name hospitals like IU Health and Community.
Patients get what they pay for
Patients, in spite of what it may feel like, pay only a tiny fraction of the total health care bill directly from their own pockets. It’s no wonder then that prices and good service are hard to find.
Slower rise in health insurance costs is an illusion
The ‘modest’ 4 percent rise in health insurance premiums, when compared with wages, shows things are getting worse, not better, for health care consumers.
Swapping Obamacare for a single-payer system?
How would a single-payer national health insurance program change the finances for employers, workers, doctors and hospitals?
A dose of light reading
Starting with this post, I’m going to periodically give you a peek at my reading list. I’ll highlight reports and reportage that I have found either helpful or provocative. I hope you do, too.
OrthoIndy channeling Walmart in comeback bid
The local orthopedic surgeons are presenting themselves as low-cost providers in an attempt to reverse growth restrictions imposed by Obamacare.
Expect deja vu: Obamacare won’t fix health care
By and large, Obamacare will leave in place the same major problems in the health care systems that existed before the law was passed—in both Indiana and across the nation.
Board suggested busy Evans let go of AIT
Michael Evans was juggling two companies and two newborn twins when his board of directors suggested it was time for a new CEO of AIT Laboratories. He was replaced by venture capitalist Matt Neff on Monday.
Already a wreck, the worst is yet to come with Obamacare
Obamacare is destined to fail for one key reason: it will make health insurance cost more and buy less.
Relax, rejoice: Obamacare will revive health care
This is the first of three blog posts, each of which will make a compelling case for one of three distinct positions on Obamacare in Indiana: why it will succeed, why it will fail and why it will be a “non-event.”
Reworking Obamacare’s numbers: Half of Hoosiers to gain, half to lose
Digging into the filings by health insurers, I concluded that half of Hoosiers buying individual coverage next year on exchanges will pay less than before Obamacare. The other half will pay more.
Amid Obamacare’s changes, WellPoint keeps old playbook
Even as it tries narrow networks, health insurer is trying to offer more choice of doctors now, but push for lower provider payments later.
Franciscan doubles down on accountable care
Franciscan St. Francis Health earned a $6.6 million bonus from the Medicare program for its success at keeping central Indiana patients out of the hospital and the emergency room. So the hospital system will expand its participation in so-called accountable care programs to all its Indiana territories.