Republicans making same old mistake on health reform
Rather than railing incessantly against Obamacare, Republicans would do themselves and the country a favor if they finally agreed on a common alternative for fixing the health care system.
Health Care Costs
Articles
Finding where the money is in health care
More than half of the $2.5 trillion consumers spend annually on health care in the United States flows to hospitals and doctors, with drug companies and health insurers trailing well behind.
Shift from information scarcity to abundance will transform health care
With payment reform and new technology, it’s plausible that health care will shift from being a bricks and mortar business to an information business–bringing us higher quality and lower costs. That’s exciting.
Health Care & Benefits Power Breakfast Transcript
Read the discussion of experts gathered by Indianapolis Business Journal.
Overbuilt, overstaffed, top heavy, hospitals ripe for cuts
Before this year’s cuts, Indiana hospitals had added 12,000 jobs over the past six years, even as private employers across Indiana, collectively, added no net new workers.
Technology on track to dramatically change health care
Cost pressures are forcing health care providers to extend the reach of limited resources.
Anthem prez: Expect ‘crickets chirping’ on Oct. 1
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield President Rob Hillman expects a slow start to the Obamacare exchanges, with fewer than one-third of uninsured people buying coverage there.
Want health reform? Change these 6 things all at once
Meaningful health reform has proved so difficult because it requires simultaneous change across a massive system. Here’s a post-Obamacare plan to do exactly that.
Hey IU, someone has to pay for those health care jobs
The IU researchers, as have many before them, approach health care jobs as if every one of them is an unmixed blessing to the Indiana economy. Employers and workers could have easily told them that’s not the case.
Top 10 blogs for the business of health care
I follow these blogs to keep up on health care financing. Tell me what else I should be reading.
Doctors, as well as patients, in the dark about prices
If you’re frustrated that health care prices are both unavailable and incomprehensible, you’re not alone. Your physician is in the dark too.
Analysis: Obamacare exchanges will push Anthem’s premiums lower
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Indiana expects the average premiums it charges on the health insurance exchanges being created by Obamacare to be about $60 per year less for each of its health plan members than they would have been without the law.
Hospitals aren’t bad guys; they’re just business guys
Even in the face of alarmingly high hospital prices, no one should conclude that hospitals are the bad guys in the health care system. Hospital executives are doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing as the business leaders of their institutions.
Ouch! Indy hospitals charging employers three times more than Medicare
A new study found that Indianapolis-area hospitals are charging patients insured by their employers 264 percent more for outpatient services than the federal Medicare program pays for the exact same services at the same hospitals.
OurHealth readies citywide network of employer clinics
In a bid to make employer-sponsored health clinics available to companies of all sizes, Indianapolis-based OurHealth will open a network of seven offices around Indianapolis next year.
Only now is Pence team starting Medicaid talks
Gov. Mike Pence’s go-slow approach could push an expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Indiana to the end of 2014. And he’s OK with that.
Which Indy hospitals do it right the first time?
Medicare data show some county-owned hospitals around Indianapolis scored better than big-name hospitals like IU Health and Community.
Patients get what they pay for
Patients, in spite of what it may feel like, pay only a tiny fraction of the total health care bill directly from their own pockets. It’s no wonder then that prices and good service are hard to find.
Slower rise in health insurance costs is an illusion
The ‘modest’ 4 percent rise in health insurance premiums, when compared with wages, shows things are getting worse, not better, for health care consumers.
Swapping Obamacare for a single-payer system?
How would a single-payer national health insurance program change the finances for employers, workers, doctors and hospitals?