by BBGAdmin | Nov 11, 2020 | General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Issues, Insurance, Medicare, National News, News and Events, Uncategorized
Medicare Part B makes up the portion of Medicare that covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, durable medical equipment, and certain other medical and health services not covered by Medicare Part A. Most everyone on...
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 17, 2017 | General Insurance Issues, Healthcare Issues, Insurance, Medicare Medicaid, Uncategorized
Can’t tell you how many calls and emails we get from panic-stricken employees nearing that magic 65th birthday and Medicare eligibility. It happens a lot. A whole lot. Some folks think if they don’t sign up three months before they turn 65 they’ll be in trouble....
by Tom Barrett | May 11, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, Uncategorized
The CMS Data Match program determines whether an employer-sponsored group health plan has the responsibility for paying health care claims before Medicare. As discussed in last week’s post, with the number of workers age 65 and over steadily increasing, many...
by Tom Barrett | Apr 8, 2016 | Employer Issues, General Health, General Insurance Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Managed Care - Group Health, Medicare Medicaid, National News, News and Events, Pharmacy Costs, Pharmacy, PBMs and Pharma Costs, Providers, Uncategorized
This post follows up on last week’s primer on how abuse of prescription pain medications has led to what’s now recognized as a true national crisis. The new podcast Embedded provides a riveting inside look at how the use of one particularly powerful prescription...
by Tom Barrett | Jun 8, 2015 | Employer Issues, Health Policy, Healthcare Issues, Healthcare Reform, Medicare Medicaid, National News, Uncategorized
We’re keeping an eye on it; and, apparently so are many of the states. The healthcare reform law includes a waiver that, starting in 2017, would let states take federal dollars now invested in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and redirect them and...
