About health insurance
Medical cost ratios for 7 national payers: Read the article for the exact numbers for the recent quarter. Most importantly, the figures are still under control post-ACA.
2020 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles: CMS released these figures for next year.
36% of Payments Tied to Alternative Payment Models in 2018: “Healthcare payments are moving away from fee-for-service, with 25.1% linked to value and quality and 35.8% tied to bundled payments, shared savings, and other alternative payment models, HCP-LAN [Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network] reported.” The figures were for Medicare Alternative Payment Method (APM) programs.
Kaiser Permanente Chairman Bernard Tyson dies unexpectedly: He was 60 years old and a great leader.
Hospital Consolidation Tied to Rising Costs by Medicare Panel: According to MedPAC senior analyst Dan Zabinski: “Vertical integration increases Medicare program spending and beneficiary cost sharing.” The reason is the extra facility payments hospitals receive when their employed physicians provide services in hospital-owned facilities; that is, they get paid more than physicians doing the same thing in their offices. The “site neutral” scheme CMS advocates “is projected to save Medicare $650 million next year. Program beneficiaries would save another $160 million in out-of-pocket costs…”
About healthcare quality
Effect of Mailed Human Papillomavirus Test Kits vs Usual Care Reminders on Cervical Cancer Screening Uptake, Precancer Detection, and Treatment: “Mailing HPV kits to underscreened women increased screening uptake compared with usual care alone, with no significant differences in precancer detection or treatment. Results support the feasibility of mailing HPV kits to women who are overdue for screening as an outreach strategy to increase screening uptake in US health care systems.”
About healthcare IT
CMS releases research-ready Medicaid and CHIP datasets: The headline speaks for itself. If interested, you must apply to receive the data.
About pharma
KKR Makes Formal Approach to Walgreens Boots on Record Buyout: News about the biggest potential leveraged buyout ever.
About the public’s health
How Germany Averted An Opioid Crisis: Unlike in the US, physicians in Germany treat pain with opioids when other measures fail, not as a first choice by protocol. This article provides some useful recommendations we could adopt in this country.