Monday catch up

Too much work and travel last week – actually missed posting three days in a row – my apologies!

Here’s what happened.

In the never-ending saga of California work comp, a recent appeals court ruling found a UR doctor potentially liable for problems associated with terminating a patient’s prescription drugs.  The case, King v CompPartners, appears to revolve around the court’s assertion that the UR physician had a patient-doctor relationship with the patient, and thus had a “duty of care”.

If King v CompPartners stands, there could be major implications for California work comp, including significant changes to the entire UR process and landscape. (CompPartners is a subsidiary of MCMC, an HSA consulting client)

Mitchell Pharmacy Solutions acquired PBM Jordan Reses. Mitchell also announced they will re-brand the company’s PBM services as ScriptAdviser. Jordan Reses’ work comp PBM serves a diverse group of employers including school districts, managed care firms, the State of Kansas; it also provides services for the auto PIP program in NJ for Liberty Mutual and other auto insurers. (Mitchell is a member of CompPharma, a PBM consortium; I am president of CompPharma)

After a multi-year hiatus, friend and colleague Bob Wilson finally posted a top ten predictions for work comp .  Despite his antediluvian political views, Bob is the most entertaining of the work comp bloggers – myself included.

Final enrollment figures for the public Exchanges are out – Timothy Jost of Health Affairs reports a total of 11.3 million enrollees, 3 million of which were new for 2016.  While 35% are under the age of 35, we do NOT know what percentage of this group were dependents.  That’s critical, as enrollment among young heads-of-household is key to determine the extent of adverse selectio n.

Tom Barrett of BBG posted on a echocardiogram test a client company paid for; same test, prescribing doc, insurer – two different test providers – 525% difference in cost.

Happy Monday!