A recent New York Times article had some very interesting insight into healthcare tourism and the high costs associated with the US healthcare system, particularly implant costs. The article spotlights a man in America who receives a quote for a hip replacement. The implant costs $350 to manufacture in the US and $150 overseas. He negotiated
A lawsuit is ongoing in Florida that could produce one of the largest whistle-blower penalties ever for the Halifax hospital chain. An internal employee of Halifax says she witnessed more than a decade of billing fraud, unnecessary hospital admissions, inappropriate spinal surgeries and illegal kickbacks to doctors which could amount to more than $200 million in damages. Allegedly, six
Medical inflation in workers’ compensation is back. This article in Managed Care Matters documents the trends that we have seen in our own data. Studies in IN, VA and NJ show significant increases. Facility and hospital costs are driving a lot of this increase. For those of you who do not know the trends in the industry,
Outpatient surgery in an Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) costs much less than in an outpatient hospital setting or ASC owned by a hospital. The gap has been growing due to the need for ASCs to compete and be efficient, and regulations and rates as defined by the largest payer in the country, Medicare.ASC reimbursement rates vs.
The government has been pushing for electronic medical record keeping for many years. The thought was it would drive efficiencies, reduce costs and improve care. Billions in incentives have been spent trying to get hospitals and providers to upgrade their systems to allow for electronic medical record keeping.This New York Times article shows that Medicare
Obesity is growing in the US. This has huge implications for our society and the workers’ compensation industry. Some studies show that medical costs for a workers’ comp injury are eight times greater for an obese person than a person of healthy weight. This article and analysis of the workers’ compensation market shows obesity trumping aging as a top influencer on
A great article on the Prescription Drug Epidemic was recently released in the September Issue of Risk & Insurance. It’s written by Rising’s Leslie Yeransian who attended the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit earlier this year and interviewed a number of experts who are trying to fix the epidemic. The article features some new technology Rising has developed, and has
