Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Friday, March 25, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Health Wonk Review is up!
Check out the ACA Anniversary edition of the Health Wonk Review over at ACASignups. It’s a nice crisp edition
from Health Business Blog http://healthbusinessblog.com/2016/03/24/health-wonk-review-is-up-7/
via A Health Business Blog
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Friday, March 18, 2016
Second breakfast: The Hobbits were on to something
From MedPage Today (For Kids, Two Breakfasts Healthier Than None)
Middle-school students who routinely ate two breakfasts — one at home and one at school — were still more likely to maintain a healthy body weight than those who skipped breakfast, a longitudinal study found.
Previous studies have shown a link between skipping breakfast and weight gain, but the mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not well understood either, Schwartz and colleagues said. One reason may be reverse causality: Overweight individuals skip breakfast thinking it will help them lose weight. Another theory is that skipping breakfast leads to overeating later in the day.
I’m a breakfast eater, so such studies validate my own biases, much as the frequent articles about the health benefits of coffee, chocolate and alcohol warm the souls of those substances’ partisans.
But this study reminded me of the wisdom of the Hobbits, who seemed to be a happy, healthy lot. They had breakfast and second breakfast, plus five meals beyond that. Any good researcher knows to end his/her paper with a call for further research. In this case I think a study of Elevenses would make a good follow-on.
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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.
from Health Business Blog http://healthbusinessblog.com/2016/03/18/second-breakfast-the-hobbits-were-on-to-something/
via A Health Business Blog
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Health Wonk Review: Tales of the Trump
Had enough of Donald Trump by now? Well, you’d better do something about it unless you want to have to listen to him for another four years or more. I start this Health Wonk Review off with a couple Trumpy topics before moving on to the usual wonkery.
Trump may be the first major party candidate with fascist tendencies, but his healthcare proposals are just the usual Republican pap with a few pieces of Obamacare and socialism thrown in for good measure. NCPA’s Health Policy Blog gives us the rundown.
As Health Care Renewal tells it, many nutritional supplements are akin to the old snake oil remedies. Consumers are fooled by the positioning of these products as health-promoting when they may be nothing of the sort. It may not surprise you that Donald Trump was behind a dubious vitamin selling scheme.
Artificial Intelligence is a threat to many jobs, including workers comp claims adjusters. But those claims adjusters won’t be needed anyway if all the jobs are done by bots! Workers’ Comp Insider lays out the case.
Forcing everyone on Medicaid into managed care sounds oh-so-obvious, but Wright on Health thinks Iowa will be in for a Kansas-style surprise after flipping the switch on April Fool’s Day.
The Affordable Care Act makes it easier for women to access midwives and freestanding birth centers. Healthinsurance.org sheds light on the particulars.
Health Access takes big health plans to task, with a focus on those bad boys at Anthem Blue Cross and Cigna. Advocates want to keep the companies from getting bigger until they get better.
From the “Chutzpah in Health Care Financing Dept” Insureblog reports on how an Oregon CO-OP is suing the Feds after being shorted on Risk Corridor funds.
Colorado Health Insurance Insider informs us that health plans are more confident in their risk pools in states with state-run exchanges. Those states may be doing more adequate eligibility verification than Healthcare.gov. Perhaps by 2017, the changes that the federal exchange is implementing will make enough of a difference that carriers will no longer find it necessary to try to avoid enrollments occurring during special enrollment periods.
Finally, I published my 11th annual birthday post on the Health Business Blog, featuring my favorite post from each of the last 12 months.
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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.
from Health Business Blog http://healthbusinessblog.com/2016/03/10/health-wonk-review-tales-of-the-trump/
via A Health Business Blog
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
Happy 11th birthday to the Health Business Blog
The Health Business Blog has turned 11 years old! Continuing a tradition I established with birthdays one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten I have picked out a favorite post from each month. Thanks for continuing to read the blog!
March 2015: Sovaldi – a near-perfect example of price discrimination
The controversy over the pricing of Gilead’s Sovaldi for Hepatitis C is a textbook example of price discrimination in action. My quick review of the economic principles involved helped explain the situation.
April 2015: E-cigarettes – the California Cooler of the 21st century
If like me you came of age in the 1980s you remember the California Cooler, a sweet wine/juice combo that made it easy for kids to start drinking alcohol even if they couldn’t handle the “adult” taste of beer, wine or liquor. They were very popular at the time but I don’t recall anyone ever saying they were a healthy alternative to anything. But when it comes to e-cigarettes, policymakers are confused.
May 2015: Of course emergency department visits are increasing
How many times have you read that the rise in ED visits contradicts the predictions of Obamacare supporters who said that providing insurance would send people to primary care? Although some supporters did make that claim, it’s long been evident to many others that those with insurance use the ED and other services more, not less.
June 2015: Primary care prognosis. Is it really so grim?
The Boston Globe published a gloomy article about primary care containing all the usual cliches. But they neglected some other significant challenges and failed to note factors that may lead to a resurgence of primary care over the next decade.
July 2015: How immigrants help health reform succeed
Medicare turned 50 in July, which provided an opportunity for all manner of retrospectives and speculation about what the future holds. The Partnership for a New American Economy publicized one of my favorite arguments: that immigrants are a key reason that Medicare is still solvent.
August 2015: Ready for the eyeSelfie for diagnosing health problems?
A friend lamented that his teenage daughter seemed fixated on taking selfies of her eyeball with his phone. I thought it was a little odd but suggested that maybe she was looking for just the right shot to send off to an ophthalmology lab for diagnosis. My answer isn’t as farfetched as it sounded.
September 2015: Why drug price regulation should not be ruled out
I’m a proponent of free markets and in general defend drug companies in their price setting, especially when they’re introducing new, innovative products with real clinical and financial benefits.
But we have to remember that the reason high prices can persist in the market is that drugs are protected by patents and other restraints on competition such as the orphan drug law. Those rights are monopolies granted explicitly by the government. There’s really nothing free-market about them. Since the government grants these rights it should also be able to regulate the benefits that result from them.
October 2015: A wakeup call from the nanny state
A mom decided to make her own decision about what was best for the health of her newborn. The nanny state went nuts and triggered an amber alert that woke up thousands of people in the middle of the night. The only good thing about it is that it’s literally a wake-up call to the whole community about how the system treats vulnerable people.
November 2015: United pulls out of ACA exchanges. Should we care?
Recently we’ve heard what could be interpreted as bad news about the viability of the exchanges:UnitedHealth is withdrawing from the program. In the highly politicized world of health reform, that information has Obamacare foes sounding the death knell.
I see things differently.
December 2015: 6 reasons to ignore listicles, even this awesome one
Are you bothered by articles with headlines like, 21 Euphoric Experiences for People Who Just Love Food, 11 Christmas Cards Only Cubans Would Send or 7 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Get Organized for the Holidays? (These are just a few of the articles on BuzzFeed’s home page as I wrote this.)
I don’t like them either, and I don’t read them. (Neither should you.) So I thought I would do something therapeutic by explaining what’s wrong with them.
January 2016: How crazy is Ted Cruz’s FDA reform proposal?
In 2014 I held substantive healthcare policy interviews with all nine candidates for governor of Massachusetts. I thought maybe in 2016 I would do a similar series at the presidential level to help elevate the debate. I guess I was hopelessly naive to think that would be attractive, so instead I’ve started to analyze some of the more radical ideas put forth by the candidates.
In general I don’t think very highly of Senator and Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, but his proposal to loosen the drug approval process is at least worth discussing.
February 2016: In Medicare Advantage, providers are becoming payers
Accountable Care Organizations enable providers of care to take on some of the functions of health plans and to receive some of the financial rewards as well as the risk. But at least on the Medicare side it can be fairly indirect, with patients “attributed” to providers rather than assigned and little formal ability to keep a patient within a single provider system.
So it’s not huge surprise that some integrated provider organizations are going further, and sponsoring Medicare Advantage (MA) plans themselves. That way they are literally both the payer and provider.
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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.
from Health Business Blog http://healthbusinessblog.com/2016/03/07/happy-11th-birthday-to-the-health-business-blog/
via A Health Business Blog
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
Call for Submissions: Health Wonk Review
I’ll be hosting the Health Wonk Review on March 10. Please submit your post by 9 am on March 8. You can use the contact form on the Health Business Group site.
Not familiar with the Health Wonk Review? Learn more here.
from Health Business Blog http://healthbusinessblog.com/2016/03/04/call-for-submissions-health-wonk-review-4/
via A Health Business Blog
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Most young men don’t know about emergency contraception. Is that ok?
About 40 percent of adolescent boys and young men know about emergency contraception, aka the “morning after pill” or Plan B according to a Journal of Adolescent Health study. Women who take the pill within a few days of unprotected sex or a condom break can avoid an unwanted pregnancy because emergency contraception prevents ovulation.
So how should we think about the 40 percent number?
The authors are pleased that the number is as high as it is, and take it as proof that educational campaigns are working. They’d also like to see the number go higher so that boys and men take responsibility for contraceptive planning. In an ideal world that’s undoubtedly true, but I wonder whether it would be better if men were less aware of emergency contraception rather than more.
After all, the possibility of pregnancy is not the only reason to avoid unprotected sex. Prevention of sexually transmitted diseases is right up there as well. If boys and men know that emergency contraception is an option, they may be less careful about protection and more likely to pressure their partners into having unprotected sex in the first place.
I’m not actually advocating for purposefully keeping people in the dark, but I’d focus the awareness message heavily on girls and women.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.
from Health Business Blog http://healthbusinessblog.com/2016/03/03/most-young-men-dont-know-about-emergency-contraception-is-that-ok/
via A Health Business Blog
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
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