News
It's no secret that keeping employees healthy saves businesses money -- and nobody knows this better than the healthcare industry. Susan Moriconi, vice president of human resources at Omnicell, has helped implement a wellness program at her company and says it can be simple and very effective.
The overall rise in medication costs is slower than in previous years as more generic drugs have become available, according to an industry report.
Medicare patients can anticipate paying considerably less for their diabetes and other products starting in July when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expands its competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME) and mail-order program but the DME industry continues to point out problems with the program.
A report released last month by the California HealthCare Foundation found that total and operating margins in the state's hospitals were higher than they have been in the past nine years -- 5.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively. But looking beyond those two basic numbers, hospitals are working on razor-thin margins.
A new study is adding fuel to the debate over the value of copay offset cards, used to defer a patient's copayment for prescription medications.
After President Obama suggested reducing "taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies" as an avenue for Medicare savings in his State of the Union speech, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group went on the offensive, saying it would "upend the successful Medicare Part D prescription drug program by imposing government price controls on it" and "harm Part D's competitive dynamics, yielding higher premiums."
While the nation's healthcare costs continue to drain the economy, several forward thinking provider organizations are finding ways to turn the situation around with carefully thought out telemed programs. A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund highlights the cost effective approaches used by three "model citizens."
At President Obama's State of the Union address, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, a guest of Michelle Obama, might have been hoping for a mention of Oregon's ambitious Medicaid reform program, an ACO-like financing and delivery redesign that may eventually extend to Medicare members, public-sector employees and even privately-insured residents.
As a result of the Affordable Care Act and the additional 30 million new customers who will be shopping for and buying insurance products starting in October, health insurance companies are trying to find ways to change their business model. Whereas insurers' focus for decade has been on B-to-B relationships, this new world of healthcare consumerism will make it necessary to become focused on a retail consumer market.
Despite improvements, Medicare has once again been placed on the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list -- a designation the program has held since 1990.