I’m late to this as this weekend’s kerfluffle about marriage and poverty rates. Let me start with the appropriate level of snarking from Lawyers, Guns and Money: Speaking of conservatives who want to pretend to talk about inequality while not actually talking about it, Edroso finds this gem from Kathleen Parker: Obviously, marriage won’t cure …
Health outcomes over health outlays
The Hill reports on a proposal that is floating in Congress to change Medicare payment methodologies that has an unusual and perhaps effective set of sponsors behind it: New legislation from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Reps. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) would attempt to improve care for chronically …
99.74% off
I was snipped last month, and I’ve been getting a steady stream of explanation of benefits (EOB). EOBs are the listing of what the medical provider did, what they charge, what the insurance company has as a contract rate, what the insurance company pays, and what the individual member who received the service is responsible …
Sabotage from the outside is tough
I’m looking at two Talking Points Memo posts and breathing a sigh of relief at a Republican/reactionary strategic error: Post 1: One was narrowly political: win the 2010 and 2012 elections and repeal the law. The other was less visible but no less important: sabotage the law at the state level to engineer failure and …
Pareto Principle and effectiveness, efficiency and equity
Most medium to large companies have some type of wellness program. That wellness program is part of the major medical group health insurance. It ranges from the annoying reminders to take the stairs and team weight loss events to significant disease and condition management. The more aggressive wellness programs will often tie money to participation. …
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Do you pay too much for your penis pump?
If you do, you’re in the same boat as Medicare: Vacuum erection systems — commonly known as “penis pumps” — cost the Medicare program $172 million over a six-year period, roughly double the amount the average American consumer would have paid at the retail level, according to a report released Monday…. The reason for this …
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Unoriginal thoughts on December enrollment
Just a couple of quick thoughts on December enrollment figures as HHS has released their detailed data dump. The New York Times has some nice graphics and breakdowns: Pace is about 70% of projection People are buying decent to good coverage. 1% Catastrophic, 20% Bronze, 60% Silver Lots of subsidies, so the right audience is …
Unoriginal thoughts on December enrollmentPost + Comments (36)