Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
One of the oft-cited rationales for Health Savings Accounts and Consumer Directed Health Plans (HSAs and CDHPs) is their potential to reduce the number of individuals without health insurance (or, as my neighbor says, the “individually self-insured). While HSAs may have some benefits in terms of increasing consumer awareness of costs, for two rather obvious reasons, HSAs will not help reduce the number of uninsured in the US.
I was unable to attend the rest of the National Consumer Driven Healthcare Summit; had to jet off to Phoenix to talk about drugs. But not to worry, the good people putting on the Summit posted the presentations so I was able to download and read them at 35,000 feet somewhere over Texas.
And boy was I rewarded.
Continue reading Superficiality v substance in the CDHP debate
I went to the National Consumer Directed Healthcare Summit in DC yesterday skeptical but with an open mind. And after Paul Ginsburg’s opening talk, I was thinking there may well be a pony in here somewhere. Unfortunately, I left after three more presentations still searching for the pony.
Continue reading National Consumer Directed Healthcare Summit – report from the scene
The shine appears to be wearing off the CDHP movement. And fast. Comments from several knowledgeable folks indicate that the movement may have been oversold on its merits. I’m expecting to learn a lot more later this week as I’ll be attending the Consumer Driven Healthcare Summit in Washington as a member of the press.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has published an article that is highly critical of Ohio’s workers comp managed care program. The analysis performed by the paper (and subsequently reported by AP and other news outlets) notes that administrative costs associated with claims management have gone up much faster than the rate of inflation,while medical costs have experienced a similar trend.
Several other papers inside and outside Ohio are also focusing on the BWC managed care program.
Continue reading Has workers comp “managed care” worked in Ohio?
HMOs are cheaper than other forms of health insurance due to lower provider costs. At least that’s what an analysis of a 2004 study comparing HMOs to other forms of insurance discussed by Jason Shafrin in a post on Healthcare Economist says.
The difference amounted to 9.3%, with no measurable difference in utilization rates or risk selection between HMOs and other plans.
So, as an industry, HMOs are not more efficient because they are better at managing care or selecting risk, they are cheaper because they pay providers less. I would note that the analysis is based on data from the nineties, so perhaps a more accurate statement is that in the past HMOs were more efficient.
I don’t know if that’s the case today.
Part D’s implications will be many, far-reaching, and complex. Why? the sheer size of the market…One-twelfth of all scripts dispensed in retail pharmacies were for Part D recipients.
Here’s a snapshot of the crystal ball.
Hank Stern and Bob Vineyard of InsureBlog have prepared a virtual cornucopia of health wonk delights. Their edition of Health Wonk Review is indeed serious brain food. No reservations required, come as you are, and buon apetit’!
Projections for insurer profits this year are looking pretty rosy, at least according to Fitch Ratings. For most property and casualty insurers, profits are up over last year at this time, losses are down, and premium growth continues to trend slightly upward as well.
As always, profits are only as solid as tomorrow’s weather forecast, and few insurance execs think they’re out of the woods yet.
The mess, and it is a real mess, that is the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation scandal has spread its ugly tentacles. The latest is the innuendo that the present head of the North Dakota state workers comp insurer has been unfairly linked to one of the accused felons involved in the Ohio BWC corruption. (ND is a monopolistic state, where WC insurance is only available from the state itself).
I have no personal knowledge of the ND fund situation, but find it most distressing that an individual who once had the misfortune to work with one of the sleazy officials in Ohio would be somehow tainted by that link.
Fortunately, an upcoming audit report will provide an objective review of the ND fund’s operations (link is the past report, new report is due shortly) and results. Here’s hoping that it finds nothing even close to the swamp of misdeeds and corruption that was Ohio’s BWC.
