There is a trend towards consolidation in the healthcare industry. We’re seeing hospitals buying up medical provider offices (or forming them). The main financial advantage is that they can then bill at hospital rates or bill for things like room charges without the actual hospital overhead. This article documents one example of this practice in Boston.
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,
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
Rising has focused a lot on the health issues caused by an increase in opioid prescriptions and over medication. This article shows how destructive prescription drugs can be, not just to the user, but to society in general.Drugged driving is way up in Michigan (and I’m sure other states). While drunk driving has gone down 25 percent in MI,
I’ve done a number of blogs on how the prescription drug epidemic, particularly opioids, has taken a toll on America. It’s an issue that’s so damaging that I wanted more in depth research so that Rising could craft an effective solution. In this newly published white paper, “Fighting the Rx Epidemic: A Prescription for Workers’
The federal government is doing a very big push on “pill mill” opioid distribution centers, with a special emphasis on Florida. The investigators have even hit large legitimate companies like CVS and Walgreens, where a lot of people have transferred their prescriptions to since the mills are getting shut down. Meanwhile, the sunshine state’s year-old “pill mill” crackdown
The military is focusing on robotic skeletons to help paralyzed soldiers walk again. The exoskeleton is a wearable robot that allows a wheelchair user to stand up and walk. It could be a game-changer for anyone who is a paraplegic. There has been a lot of focus on artificial and robotic hands and legs that move
