Health Wonk Review: Short and Sweet Edition

If you want the best health care articles on the web, then you came to the right place. This week the Healthcare Economist is hosting the world-renowned Health Wonk Review. I’ve divided the articles into 6 categories: health insurance, mental health, pharmaceuticals, physician pay, regulation, and value measurement.  No fancy themes, just high-quality content.

Without further ado, here are the best healthcare articles of the past 2 weeks,

Health Insurance

• Is sharing (really) caring? InsureBlog‘s Henry Stern has some interesting news on health care sharing ministries.  To preview:  “All low price insurance (and non-insurance) is great until you really need it.”
• How to shop for a Part D plan from Josh Schultz at medicareresources.org
• ACA plan premiums rise by 23.9% at ACA signups.net
• In California, however, rate hikes are only 13.2% on average according to Anthony Wright at the Health Access Blog.

Mental Health

• When medical errors happen, should hospitals consider the mental health of not only the patients and their families that are affected but also the mental health of the at-fault physician?  Alexa Ortiz of the Medical Care Blog argues that the answer is ‘yes’.
• On Health Affairs Blog, Ryan Mutter, Sean Lynch, Mir M. Ali, Brent Gibbons, Richard McKeon, and Christopher Carroll discuss how behavioral health services can better intervene with individuals exhibiting suicidal behavior.

Pharmaceuticals

• Why drugs are excluded from your formulary? Adam Fein of Drug Channels takes a look at the CVS and ExpressScripts 2017 formularies.

Physician pay

• How bad is the gender pay gap between men and women? Peggy Salvatore of Health System Ed provides not only the facts but a personal story as well.
• Are hospitalists paid like specialists or primary care docs?  Any why?  Brad Flansbaum of The Hospital Leader investigates.

Regulation

• Is the healthcare system rigged?  Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal thinks so, and provides and example of a former CMS and FDA director.
• Real innovation in health care – in which Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters decries the profiteering generated by the US health care system, noting that it’s based on the underlying capitalist economic structure.
• Do we need more regulation around health care data privacy?  David Harlow of HealthBlawg provides some insight.
• Is pregnancy a qualifying event to enroll in an Obamacare plan?  Jay Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider weighs in on the debate.
• Why did OSHA penalties jump 78% this month?  Julie Ferguson of Workers Comp Insider tries to calm the hysteria.

Value measurement

• Is ROI the right healthcare metric metric?  Jaan Siderov of the Population Health Blog is skeptical: “Using financial incentives to drive fewer hospitalizations, drugs and specialists is perilously close to rewarding the withholding of needed care.”
• “What changes do providers need to make in EMR utilization as they shift from fee-for-service to value based payments?”  The answer to this and many other interesting questions are provided in an interview of Dr. David K. Butler by David Williams at Health Business Blog.
• What is value-based insurance design? Jason Shafrin (that’s me) of the Healthcare Economist not only explains but also investigates how CMS plans to expand its use of VBID as part of its Medicare Advantage program.