There are a number of ways to save money in health care without anyone (”anyone” being defined as “anyone who is not a special interest”) feeling a reduction in service or quality.
The first is quite simple. Believe it or not, when a state Medicaid director puts an expensive new program in place that will ”reduce costs while increasing [...]
Last time I ended my entry by observing that as increasingly effective, painless, and expensive procedures,diagnostics and therapies are introduced, they will be over-consumed. Why? There is no economic check-and-balance against this because these resources are virtually free at the point of sale, which brings me to the third observation (counting the the last posting as [...]
Read Full PostOne way to significantly impact overall costs is to insist on ‘broker’ fee transparency. The brokers fees can be as high as 15% (they are often less) of the fees paid to the insurance company and are often not identified to the buying employer. Brokers have on occasion caused the buying employer to spend more [...]
Read Full PostA restaurant which insisted on giving us more food than we wanted, and wouldn’t let us leave until we ate it all, and sent the other diners the check for our extra portions, would go out of business within hours.
Yet, that is exactly what happens when it is time to die. In [...]
Medical costs are not just driven by disease and ill health, but by care seeking propensity.
Ask the question in any commercial health plan population (diseased or not) and you will find similar trends. People with a lower trigger point of when to seek care generate about double the claims compared to those who only seek [...]