Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
The budget sequester is going to cut reimbursement rates for many providers – starting today many will see a 2 percent reduction for Medicare. That’s going to hurt, but there’s good news as well – for some providers. According to … Continue reading Sequester’s impact on hospitals – only CMS could come up with this
Read More...It has long been known that there’s wide variation in the type, quantity, and outcomes of medical care across providers. A new report – research done by Dartmouth, and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – looks at variations … Continue reading Variation in hospital results – how to use the data
Read More...The good folk at WCRI have produced a very useful – and very timely – analysis of outpatient facility costs, cost drivers, regulatory mechanisms, and trends in 20 key states. Timely because the upcoming changes to Medicare and Medicaid’s hospital … Continue reading Work comp hospital costs – what WCRI’s report says, and what it means
Read More...There’s going to be more change in health care this year than in any year in memory. Here’s what I see coming. 1. Most states will expand Medicaid. Despite their protestations to the contrary, governors – even those in redder-than-red … Continue reading Predictions for health care in 2013
Read More...Workers comp payers around the country are seeing their bills – and payments – for inpatient and outpatient services increase significantly faster than other costs. And all indications are those increases are going to…increase. The latest WCRI reports (kudos to … Continue reading Work comp hospital costs on the rise
Read More...Not directly. But there’s a wealth of indirect effects. Here are a few worth contemplating… But first, I’m not seeing a plunge “off the cliff” as all that big a disaster. Sure, there will be much consternation among pols and pundits, … Continue reading Is this fiscal cliff thing going to affect workers comp?
Read More...This morning’s workcompcentral arrived with the news that hospitals and device manufacturers somehow are arguing the huge overpayment for surgical devices in California is justified because of the “additional costs” of putting these devices in comp claimants. Seems the California … Continue reading Providers’ unmitigated gall
Read More...It’s not the latest Odyssey/MSC/OneCall deal… Nor is it the increasing profitability (if one can call what’s really just the absence of continuing losses “increasing profitability”) of the comp industry. Sure there’s going to be talk about Sandy and her … Continue reading What people in Vegas will REALLY be talking about…
Read More...If Medicaid isn’t your business, you may be tempted to ignore the implications of the current kerfuffle over whether or not states should accept free money to expand Medicaid. That would be a mistake. As all-powerful and influential as Medicare … Continue reading The Medicaid expansion and political choice
Read More...Seeking protection from double digit annual premium increases, employers have increasingly shifted premium costs to employees and increased deductibles and copays. That’s been largely responsible for the flattening out of rate increases, but there’s been a downstream effect that was … Continue reading Hospital collections down…your costs up?
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