Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
As Time Magazine reports, health care prices are fucked up. Castlight is one company that is trying to shed some light on health care prices to improve transparency. Their CEO, Giovanni Colella, write the following in Forbes: To start, health insurance companies should refuse to agree to “gag clauses” with hospitals who do not want their…
The Health Wonk Review: “Why hasn’t spring sprung? edition is now posted at Workers Comp Insider. Plus, here is some additional reading for your weekend. NHE trends (as of Jan 2013) New teeth. Second opinions. Match day mayhem. EHR data visualizations. And in honor of my recent move to Los Angeles this week: Congestion pricing comes to LA.
the ‘second opinions’ industry. Currently, many people have an almost religious trust in their doctor’s recommendation. “A 2010 Gallup poll found that 70% of Americans are so respectful of their doctor’s advice that they never get a second opinion or do additional research.” This finding is despite the fact that medical errors may cost the…
In addition to detailed work examining regional variation in Medicare spending between 2007 and 2009, I also conducted a study examining trends in regional variation in Medicare spending and quality between 1992 and 2010. The study was unique because: (i) it covers 19 years of data up to 2010, (ii) the data rely on 100%…
My new firm, Precision Health Economics (PHE), also produced a report for the IOM’s project on regional variation in health care spending, utilization and quality. PHE’s goal was to synthesize the results across the separte investigations into the Medicare, Medicaid and commercially insured populations. Their findings are the following. In synthesizing the population-specific studies of…
I am excited to announce that as of April 5, 2013, I will be joining the firm Precision Health Economics. PHE is a leading health care consulting company providing sophisticated quantitative analysis. More information on the firm is below: In 2005, a group of academic health economists from elite research universities founded Precision Health Economics…
Last week I shared a report I wrote at Acumen that described regional variation in spending, utilization and quality for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Based on our work, an Institute of Medicine committee (lead by Joseph P. Newhouse, Alan Garber, and Robin P. Graham) reached the following conclusions in their newly released report: Health care…
The Healthcare Economist has a new report out for the Institute of Medicine. The report is co-authored with a number of outstanding individuals at Acumen including: Thomas MaCurdy, Jay Bhattacharya, Daniella Perlroth, Anita Au-Yeung, Hani Bashour, Camille Chicklis, Kennan Cronen, Brandy Lipton, Shahin Saneinejad, Elen Shrestha, and Sajid Zaidi. IOM summarizes the goals of the…
Could it be the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a Obamacare)? Some small businesses think so. The Washington Post speaks with a number of small business owners: These changes are less than a year away, and I still have no information about how much our premiums are going to cost…It definitely gives me pause when thinking about…
The March 20th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at My Personal Finance Journey.