Posts Tagged “Workplace”
ShowHide 3rd Party PapersCommonwealth Fund: Analysis shows that up to 16.6 million workers are in firms that would be eligible for the tax credit in 2010 to 2013.
MetLife Study: New Insights and Innovations for Reducing Health Care Costs for Employers
Pricewaterhouse Coopers: Employers have become less satisfied with their health insurers, according to a study released today by PWC
Commonwealth Fund: Paying the Price: How Health Insurance Premiums Are Eating Up Middle-Class Incomes
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PMSI Drug Trend Report
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, April 25, 2012
PMSI has released its 2012 Drug Trend Report for workers’ compensation business. Medical costs are an increasing portion of workers’ compensation payouts and drug spending, particularly for pain medications, has become an area of greater focus to prevent abuse.
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Costs, Workplace
2012 Potpourri XIV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 20, 2012
More delightful health facts for your edification in our most recent Potpourri, including the cost of obesity, an employer survey on wellness programs, opportunities for hospitals to reduce costs, an employer survey on cost expectations in the coming year, Massachusetts’ and health spending control and incentives in health care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Hospital, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
2012 Potpourri XII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 6, 2012
An early spring for much of the country and our latest Potpourri is in full bloom, with nuggets on health information exchanges, genetic testing guidelines, an employer survey on reform, EMRs and lab test ordering and the relationship between clinical quality and patient satisfaction.
Tags: Genomics, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance, HIT, HITECH, Patient Satisfaction, Workplace
2012 Potpourri XI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, March 30, 2012
Welcome to another Potpourri of health information, focusing on workers’ comp medical prices, cost-sharing on asthma meds, the Medicare Advantage program, doctors’ experience of quality improvement programs, a review of the last 60 years in health economics and the value of teledermatology.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Medicare, Physicians, Telemedicine, Workplace
2012 Potpourri II
by Kevin Roche on Friday, January 13, 2012
Our latest Potpourri reveals details about causes of workplace injuries, the effect of raising the Medicare eligibility age, benefit levels in existing health policies, false claims prosecutions and off-label drug use, ICU staff perceptions of the appropriateness of care, and malpractice liability from clinical decision support systems.
Tags: Care Management, Drugs, Health Insurance, HIT, Medicare, Workplace
Towers Watson Employer Survey
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The latest Towers Watson survey of employer intentions regarding health benefits indicates that significant changes may occur in the next two to three years, but the biggest danger may be firms’ willingness to play follow-the-leader when it comes to reactions to reform.
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey Part III
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The final look at the Kaiser employer health benefit survey examines findings on prescription drug coverage, wellness programs, retiree health plans, funding mechanisms and the effect of health care reform.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey II
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The second part of our review of the Kaiser employer health benefits survey discusses employee contributions to premiums and employee cost-sharing trends, along with developments in high-deductible plans with savings accounts.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey I
by Kevin Roche on Monday, October 3, 2011
The annual Kaiser Foundation report on employment-based health coverage finds a rapid growth in per person and per family costs in 2009, but relative stability in the number of persons who have access to health insurance at the workplace. High-deductible plans continue to show rapid enrollment increases.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XXXIV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 2, 2011
A dazzling review of recent research and other health related nuggets is presented in this latest Potpourri, including potential problems with evidence-based medicine, physician dilemmas in controlling cost, workers’ compensation medical costs, reducing hospital infections, improving heart attack care and the growth of CDHPs.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Insurance, Hospital, Medical Care, Physicians, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XXXIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 26, 2011
Summer begins to wane but our Potpourri remains hot, with items on large employers benefit intentions for 2012, Australia’s project to create a unified patient medical record, hospital collections at the point-of-service, physician compensation, trends in per capita medical costs and how to avoid issues in accountable care organizations.
Tags: ACO, EHRs, Health Care Costs, HIT, Physicians, Workplace
Towers Watson, NBGH Survey on Value in Health Spending
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health released their latest Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health, which delineates actions being taken by many employers to try to limit health spending, while ensuring that employees receive good quality care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XXXI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 12, 2011
Mercer issued a release on its survey of employers regarding issues relating to the reform law. Among the findings are that employers have already seen a 2% enrollment jump due to having to cover children up to age 26, and that over 40% of employers expect the full implementation of the law to raise their [...]
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Medicare, Physicians, Workplace
Drug Week–Reports Part IV
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Our final drug report post discusses releases from Express Scripts, the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute and ESI’s PMSI division, which focuses on workers’ compensation pharmacy. Express Scripts emphasizes behavioral aspects of trend management and the PBMI report examines drug benefits from the employer perspective.
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
AHRQ on Employer-based Insurance
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, June 23, 2011
An AHRQ Statistical Brief looks at changes in employer-based insurance premiums from 2001-2009, finding large increases in premiums and even larger increases in the employees’ share of such premiums, particularly for employee plus one coverage.
Tags: Health Insurance, Workplace
Fee Schedules and Physician Charges in Workers’ Compensation
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 21, 2011
An NCCI brief examines the effects of changes in workers’ compensation fee schedules on actual reimbursements, finding a complex relationship that may have applicability to group health as well.
Tags: Physicians, Workplace
Employer Reaction to Health Reform
by Kevin Roche on Monday, June 13, 2011
A new report from McKinsey finds that the federal reform law will have more of an effect on the market for employer-based health insurance than other studies suggested would occur. McKinsey believes many employers will drop coverage altogether.
2011 Potpourri XXII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, June 3, 2011
Another round of health tidbits, including the association between primary care workforce and Medicare outcomes, comparisons of Type 2 diabetes drugs, effects of limiting DTC drug advertising, health information exchange sustainability, the effect of the Irish workplace smoking ban and barriers to diffusion of cost-effective care.
Tags: Care Management, Drugs, Elder Care, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, HIT, Medicare, Physicians, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XXI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, May 20, 2011
Once more into the world of health care to find nuggets of useful information, this week including the legality of wellness programs, the switch to ICD-10, pragmatic trials, the status of the workers’ comp industry, consumer health care sentiment, and hospital ER strategies.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Care Costs, HIT, Hospital, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XVII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 22, 2011
Happy Easter and welcome to our latest Potpourri, which will raise you up with information on workplace wellness, hospital pricing, clinical decision support systems, using HIT to save on drug development costs, CMS’ quality improvement programs and health care M&A activity.
Tags: Care Management, Drugs, Health Care Quality, HIT, Hospital, M&A, Pay For Performance, Workplace
The Economy and Workers’ Compensation
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 4, 2011
The overall workers’ compensation market has been soft during the recession and even before that. A new report from NCCI projects continued softness, although health care as a component of claims will continue to increase.
Tags: Workplace
Workers’ Compensation and Return to Work in California
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 2, 2011
It is sometimes overlooked that one of the goals of a workers’ compensation system should be to get employees back to work as soon as possible. A Rand brief looks at trends in this regard in California.
Tags: Workplace
Workplace Clinics Spread
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A new report sponsored by a unit of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation describes the state of workplace clinics and interviews a number of participants to identify trends, challenges and success factors.
Tags: Consumers, Medical Care, Workplace
Turkey of a Potpourri
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, November 25, 2010
There you are, relaxing on a holiday and holiday weekend and for some reason you feel compelled to browse the internet and come across our Thanksgiving potpourri, hopefully not a turkey, but stuffed with edible data, including HHS’ final rule on MLRs; the AMAs survey on prior authorization; principles for ACOs, how to use research studies, Humana’s acquisition of Concentra and an explanation of why health care costs keep going up. Happy Thanksgiving!
Tags: Accountable Care Organization, Care Management, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, HIT, M&A, MLR, Physicians, Workplace
Pharmacy Benefit Report
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, November 4, 2010
The annual survey of employers in regard to their prescription drug benefits conducted by the PBMI is out. It reveals lots of interesting information about design and cost trends.
2010 Potpourri XL
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, October 30, 2010
Is there anything scary about health care? Yes if you have to pay for it! Nothing scary about our Potpourri, just soothing health care nuggets, covering alternative therapies for back pain, CBO’s view on the reform law, peer interaction to help manage diabetes, diabetes prevalence, Massachusetts physician information, accountable care organizations, bias in clinical trial results and the effects of the health law on employer provided insurance.
Tags: Accountable Care Organization, Care Management, Chronic Disease, Disease Management, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Medical Care, Physicians, Workplace
2010 Potpourri XXXV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, September 25, 2010
The days are shortening and the light fades, but there is still enough to read our Potpourri, which this week includes two benefit consultants’ views on health care coverage costs for next year, hospice care at end-of-life, insurance premium hikes in Connecticut, Massachusetts health reform outcomes, and how patients’ characteristics affects doctors’ quality ratings.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, HIT, Medical Care, Pay For Performance, Physicians, Workplace
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Kaiser Foundation released results of its annual survey of health insurance costs among companies providing health benefits to workers. The most prominent finding is the continued shift of cost to employees.
Tags: Health Insurance, Workplace
2010 Potpourri XXXIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, September 11, 2010
Fall is a lovely time of year and what could be better than relaxing with a Potpourri, featuring health insurance increases, the true costs of EHRs, hospital pay-for-performance programs and quality, the impact of social networks on health behavior, and unenrolled Medicaid-eligible children.
Tags: Consumers, Government, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, HIT, Hospital, Medicaid, Pay For Performance, Workplace
Employer Health Plan Changes for 2011
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 27, 2010
Everyone is anxious to see the early effects of the reform law on health care costs. Another survey of large employer groups regarding their 2010 and 2011 expectations indicates that those costs are continuing to go up, probably at a faster pace.
Employment-based Wellness Programs
by Kevin Roche on Monday, August 16, 2010
Wellness programs continue to grow in popularity as a method for companies to get health costs under control and to improve productivity. A new report summarizes evidence on what may make these efforts most effective.
Tags: Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
Employer Reactions to Health Reform
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 26, 2010
The new national health law poses a number of challenges for employers in regard to the health benefits they offer to their employees. A poll published in Business of Insurance gives some early insight into companies’ initial reaction to the new law.
Employee Benefit Trends
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 16, 2010
MetLife publishes its annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, revealing that employers are concerned with cost control and employee retention and workers value their benefits and are particularly concerned about retirement.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance, Workplace
Towers Watson Employer Survey
by Kevin Roche on Monday, March 22, 2010
Towers Watson is a large employee benefits consulting firm which regularly surveys companies regarding their health plan and related offerings. The latest survey offers insights on trends in plan design and cost containment efforts.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Workplace
2010 Potpourri VIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, March 6, 2010
The Food & Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health have announced an initiative to collaborate on speeding significant research findings into products and clinical use. (FDA/NIH Announcement) Among other things the collaboration will create a leadership council to facilitate reaching its objectives. They also will award $6.75 million for the study of new [...]
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Reform, Malpractice, Retail Clinics, Workplace
EBRI Workshop on Employment-based Health Benefits
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 3, 2010
EBRI held a workshop on the future of employment-based health benefits, bringing together experts from disparate constituencies to discuss the topic. As expected, there was significant disagreement about reform possibilities and what might happen in the absence of reform.
Tags: Health Insurance, Workplace
Workers’ Comp Health Costs
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Researchers at the University of California suggest that if workers’ compensation medical care were moved to general health insurance, the administrative savings would pay for expanded access in reform bills.
Tags: Workers Compensation, Workplace
AHA Endorses Workplace Wellness
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 16, 2009
The American Heart Association issues a comprehensive set of recommendations for improving cardiovascular health through workplace wellness programs, continuing its efforts to prevent acute coronary disease.
Tags: Medical Care, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace, Worksite Health
More Evidence on Obesity’s Cost
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Overweight people are getting blamed for everything, including more workers’ compensation costs.
Tags: Wellness and Prevention, Workers Compensation, Workplace
California Workers’ Compensation Rate Proposals
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Earlier this year the California Department of Insurance was asked to allow a greater than 20% increase in workers’ compensation premiums. The Department’s response provides some interesting observations on the state of workers’ compensation medical cost control efforts.
Health Care, Small Business and Jobs
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Health care costs can limit small business growth, stunting a major source of new jobs.
Tags: Employers, Health Care Costs, Workplace
Worksite Health and Medication Adherence
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 10, 2009
A study indicates that patients who receive medical care and prescriptions at the worksite tend to be more compliant with their drug regimens.
Tags: Pharmaceutical, Workplace, Worksite Health
More Innovation From the Private Sector
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A Company mandates that its employees check their health status.
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