by Tom Barrett | Nov 12, 2019 | General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Medicare, National News
On Friday Medicare announced the Part B rates that most Medicare enrollees will be responsible for paying in 2020. Effective January 1, 2020 the standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees will be $144.60. This represents an increase of $9.10 from the...
by Tom Barrett | Sep 23, 2019 | Employer Issues, Healthcare Costs, Insurance, National News, News and Events
Groupons have been in the medical news lately (for example “Groupons For Medical Treatment? Welcome To Today’s U.S. Health Care” and “Groupons for medical care are helping patients save money”) with stories of deeply discounted rates for some...
by Tom Barrett | May 24, 2019 | Healthcare Costs, Insurance, Providers, SharedFunding, Uncategorized
A study of spending on 12.5 million diagnostics tests by UnitedHealthcare once again revealed substantial variation in the prices patients pay for common diagnostic tests. The seven groups of common diagnostic tests included echocardiograms, mammograms and...
by Tom Barrett | Feb 26, 2019 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, Medicare Medicaid
Some say it’s the hottest demographic in the labor market — men and women ditching traditional retirement age to work into their 70s, 80s and sometimes beyond. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the 65 and over crowd will make up the...
by Tom Barrett | Jun 26, 2018 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, National News, News and Events, Providers
(Note: In keeping with our 2 Minute Drill mantra, we’ve broken this into two parts. Today in Part 1 we’ll highlight Gawande’s view of the three big systemic problems with healthcare. Tomorrow in Part 2 we’ll summarize his vision for the ABJ-HCE.) Last week...
