Buried under two projects this week – here’s what crossed my desk while I was trying to do actual work…
First, after the horrific tragedy in Parkland, I recalled this data point – the US has a significantly higher child mortality rate than other developed countries. Gun violence is a major driver. A child age 15 to 19 in the U.S. is 82 times more likely to die from gun violence than such a child in the other countries.
More than 1500 of our kids die from gun violence every year.
The next time someone blathers on about “American Exceptionalism”, show them this graph.
Big spenders –
We’ve long known that a few people account for a lot of health care spending. New news indicates this is more true now than ever; 5% of patients accounted for 53% of spending in 2015. What isn’t as well known is there’s a LOT of turnover in that 5%; fully two-thirds of the people in the group this year weren’t big spenders last year.
Consistently High Turnover in the Group of Top Health Care Spenders 
Implications abound:
- high risk pools can’t cover these folks if they can’t predict who they are
- insurance is needed to protect us from the risk we need high cost services
Drug costs
From Adam Fein, news that the rest of the world is following in the work comp world’s footsteps – at least when it comes to moderating drug cost inflation. There’s a lot of great information in Adam’s post, much of which refutes generally accepted wisdom or common knowledge. One item of note – utilization – the volume of pills – was almost flat last year across all payers.
Webinar on IME Reports
Independent medical evaluations (IMEs) are a critical component of workers’ compensation and other disability benefit systems. Unfortunately, IME reports often lack quality, customer satisfaction of the various stakeholders is not measured, and TQM is rarely, if ever, applied to medicolegal and IME work.
On Wednesday, February 21 at 3 pm ET, Noon PT, Christopher R. Brigham, MD , a world-class expert on independent medical evaluations (IMEs), will host a unique, no cost webinar on “IME Reports: Assuring Excellence! ”
You can register at this link https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PsLc3YHXTRWBU6aq2W9Wsg
Have a safe weekend, and please demand your elected officials stop ignoring the causes of gun violence
