The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse in the United States is $78.5 billion a year. Most of that burden is related to workplace costs, such as lost productivity, prolonged time on disability, and increased work disability claim costs. To help combat this crisis, organizations
I have long encouraged people to avoid going to hospitals if they can help it. Just last year, I wrote a column for Risk & Insurance on this very topic. But the message bears repeating, because the numbers are staggering. An estimated 440,000 people die each year in the hospital – and not from the
A recent Mayo study reinforces what we have always believed. A person’s attitude and happiness really affect how quickly they recover. “The study, which looked at 431 colon cancer surgery patients, found that the 13% of patients who had quality-of-life scores below 50 on a 100-point scale were almost 3 times as likely to have
This article features a patient that posted their $55K appendectomy surgery bill online, and it makes some very interesting points. The University of California San Francisco researchers set out to find out how much an appendectomy cost in California. The price varied from $1,529 to $182,955. The “recovery room” was over $7K for 2 hours.
There is a looming crisis in access to care. All of the numbers point the same way. More people are getting coverage. More doctors are retiring. Medicaid patients are already having trouble finding care. Medicare and work comp are next. Accessing care is huge concern for many of the payers I speak to. They know
If you’re undergoing a surgery, would you rather go to a provider who takes their time on the surgery, or one who does the surgery well? Strange question right? You want someone that takes their time and does it well. Maybe not. This Forbes article is about a study done to compare the skill of doctors performing
