In this version of the Health Wonk Review, I find the latest greatest from around the web related to health policy. Since more an more people consume their web through photos (see Instagram’s popularity), for each post, a carefully curated picture has been selected to further entice you to read through this great selection of articles. And so without further ado…
Editor’s Choice
Patient access within provider networks is an important concept but difficult to visualize. How did Jay Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider make these maps measuring provider networks in Colorado? Read his article “2018 Essential Community Provider Maps” to find out.
Best of the rest
What are the societal and political consequences if we see continued flat wage growth, the accelerating decline of private-sector unions, a rising CPI and an increasingly costly health care burden for families? To find the answer, visit Tom Lynch’s Worker’s Comp Insider.
Partners and Harvard Pilgrim aren’t really going to merge, are they? To find out the answer, go to David Williams Health Business Blog.
What does Dan Burton, CEO of Health Catalyst, think about the evolution of value-based payment and how technology can help? Find out at David Harlow’s HealthBlog.
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters provides some fast facts about work comp pharmacy, based on CompPharma’s Annual Survey of Prescription Drug Management in Workers’ Comp.
Ethical issues with Donald Trump may be nothing new, but Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal looks at the latest healthcare-related ethical misadventure to hit the headlines.
Even though the individual mandate may be dead at the federal level, Andrew Sprung of xpostfactoid notes that New Jersey may be instituting its own individual mandate as well as a reinsurance program. In part this effort is to stave off the 22% increase in premiums in NJ.
At Healthcare Economist, yours truly gives my take on President Trump’s American Patients First plan.
One component of the American Patients First focuses on discounts, rebates and targets pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). How big a deal are these rebates and discounts? According to Adam Fein from Drug Channels, brand-name drugs in 2017 reduced list price revenues by an astonishing $153 billion, largely due to these rebates and discounts. To find out more–and learn why Adam used this picture–go to his website.
And last but not least, Maine and New Hampshire are starting to provide financial incentives for patients to choose lower cost providers. Will it work? Head over the InsureBlog and find out from Hank Stern.
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