Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
Coventry has bought all the non-clinic operations of Concentra Inc. (with the apparent exception of Concentra Payment Systems) for $387 million in cash, making the deal worth about 1.2 times trailing 12 months’ revenue.
Here’s my take.
I’ve been trying to find a summary of the Edwards plan unblemished by opinion/criticism/odds-making, and so far all I’ve found is the same article written several different ways, and no synopsis.
No wonder we’re having a tough time engaging in a substantitive debate.
Matt Holt has published a hilarious dialogue with a press relations guy from the National Federation of Independent Businesspeople.
If you are one of those who believe people always act in their self-interest, this will disabuse you of that notion.
Seventy years. That’s how long its been since the P&C insurance industry enjoyed profit levels like today’s. The Dust Bowl was in full blow, there was no TV, half the people worked on farms, and Roosevelt II was just getting started.
The good old days are back.
Controversy over treatment types, overly generous payments to physicians to endorse a product, lawsuits alleging faulty research, the FDA under fire for inadequate evaluation, fights over reimbursement for a new procedure, and confusion over the usefulness of a common and very expensive procedure.
If you want to know why the US health care system is so dysfunctional, I give you low back pain.
My recent comments on Michael Cannon’s entries for the Cavalcade of Risk struck a nerve or two, evidently without the benefit of anaesthesia.
After a year of badgering other bloggers to host an edition of Health Wonk Review, I’ve been guilted into hosting the Cavalcade of Risk, a related-but-different grand rounds of things insurance- and risk-management related.
I’m doing this from a beach-side hammock in Puerto Morelos, MX, so if there are garbled sections, blame it on the cervezas.
If you want to know why the Bush health care plan will not work, you need look no further than the individual insurance cancellation brouhaha in California.
Blue Cross of California and other carriers stand accused of combing through high cost members’ application forms to find any mistake, inadvertent or not, and then using that to cancel their coverage.
While Blue Cross’ practice (which they have admitted) is reprehensible, it’s also understandable in today’s dysfunctional insurance market.
Continue reading The Bush health care plan’s problem and the real world
In a move designed to reassert control over the mechanisms of government, Pres. Bush recently signed an executive order requiring all regulatory directives be approved by political appointees. (registration required)
This will have a significant impact on occupational health initiatives, regulations, and enforcement.
MSC was sold last year to Monitor Clipper. Brazos invested in Cypress Care (a client). Genex was jsut sold to an investment firm, and another has bought up a big chunk of MSC’s debt. Injured Workers’ Pharmacy is on the block (and close to a deal), Bank of America is asking several hundred million for Third Party Solutions, and WorkingRx is for sale as well. Health Advocates was just purchased by PMSI/Tmesys, and P2P was recently sold to Fiserv. And execs at good managed care firms are besieged by investors seeking to “be helpful”.
Lots of smart money is looking hard at workers comp managed care and related services.
Why?
