With the NBA playoffs are upon us, the Healthcare Economist reached out to some NBA stars to see what they like to do in their spare time. LeBron James returned my call and after a lengthly discussion, I learned that he loves to read the Health Wonk Review (HWR). In fact, his favorite topics are:
- Affordable Care Act
- Health Insurance and mortality
- Hospitals
- Pharmaceuticals
- Policy
- Privacy
To honor his request, this edition of the HWR covers exactly those topics.
Without further ado…
Affordable Care Act
- What do the new ACA plans and ice cream have in common? InsureBlog‘s Patrick Paule explains.
- At Workers’ Comp Insider, Tom Lynch examines efforts to ban or restrict the use of the opioid Zohydro ER. Are these restrictions going to reduce drug abuse or are they “draconian” and “unjustified”?
- Over 8 million individuals selected a qualified health plan through health-insurance exchanges. Who are these people? Timothy Jost of Health Affairs blog provides the details.
- Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters cautions that national statistics on health insurance exchange enrollment hide significant variation in the state-by-state health insurance exchange viability.
- Some reports have argued that individuals are opting out of the exchanges due to the high cost of insurance premiums? How much does insurance from an health insurance exchange really cost? Louise Norris from Colorado Health Insurance Insider explains.
- Will the Affordable Care Act increase unemployment? The Healthcare Economist evaluates perspectives from the Congressional Budget Office and the Urban Institute.
Health insurance and mortality
- Is Obamacare worth the cost? Harold Pollack of HealthInsurance.org says that the answer is likely yes, citing an Annals of Internal Medicine study that Obamacare may save 24,000 lives annually.
- Jaan Sidorov of the Population Health Blog finds the Annals paper interesting, but adds some caveats. For instance, we have to mandate insurance for over 800 persons to save one life.
Hospitals
- Many organizations rate hospitals. U.S. News and World Report. Consumer Reports. Tinker Ready says now Yelp is getting into the hospital ranking business.
Pharmaceuticals
- What is 340B? How can it reduce your cost for pharmaceuticals? Billy Wynne of The Healthcare Lighthouse sheds some light on the topic.
- Did NEJM let two venture capitalists get away with writing an unrealistic and self-serving Perspective on drug development? David Williams of the Health Business Blog weighs in.
Policy
- At Healthcare Talent Transformation, Peggy Salvatore examines recent appointments at Health and Human Services Secretary and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Do these appointments signal a change in direction or a doubling down on the tasks at hand?
- Should CMMI be abolished? Chris Langston of Health AGEnda says no.
- Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal wonders what the purposes of medical society conflict of interest statements, if they are not publicly disclosed. He discusses the case of the American Board of Internal Medicine in detail.
Privacy
- John Goodman and his Health Policy Blog believe your DNA should be in the public domain.
Nicely done, Jason! Thanks for including us. We’ll get the word out.