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Mal Allison

Growth in Income and Health Care Costs | The Doctor Weighs In - 0 views

www.thedoctorweighsin.com/n-income-and-health-care-costs

growth income health care costs middle class

shared by Mal Allison on 04 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Consider the period from 1980 to 2011. Cash income per member of a median income household, which includes items like wages and interest and cash payments from government like Social Security, only grew by about $4,300 or 27 percent over that period, when adjusted for inflation. From 2000 to 2010, it was even negative. Yet according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, per capita personal income—our most comprehensive measure of individual income—grew 72 percent from 1980 to 2011.
Mal Allison

'Wildfire' Growth Of Freestanding ERs Raises Concerns About Cost - Kaiser Health News - 0 views

www.kaiserhealthnews.org/...and-alone-emergency-rooms.aspx

wildfire growth ERs urgent care convenience cost

shared by Mal Allison on 16 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • Several hospital chains are driving the boom – including HCA Inc., which will open its seventh ER later this year in Florida, and Wake Med Health and Hospitals, which will add its fourth next month in the Raleigh, N.C., metro area. They regard the facilities as a way to expand into new markets, generate admissions to their hospital and reduce crowding at their hospital-based ERs.
  • reater Houston has 150 emergency rooms — twice the number as greater Miami -- even though its population is only slightly bigger, according to a KHN analysis.
  • While the ERs charge insurers double or triple the amount per patient as an urgent care center or doctor's office, patients use them for routine care that could be provided in less costly settings, Ho says. That is the case with standard ERs as well. Yet, insured patients have little incentive to drive past the more expensive, freestanding ERs because their co-payment is only $50 or $100, just modestly more than what it might cost for a visit to an urgent care center or doctor’s office. Their insurers pay the balance generally.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The main reason they are more costly than urgent care is that they charge a "facility fee" on top of a fee for the physician's time—just like traditional ERs. The facility fee was originally intended as a way to help hospitals recoup overhead costs
  • In an effort to protect consumers, Texas in 2009 passed a law to license freestanding ERs that are not owned by hospitals. The law requires facilities be open 24 hours, always have doctors on site and give everyone a medical screening regardless of their ability to pay – all requirements that apply to hospital-based ERs. Many of the clinics, though, don’t accept Medicaid or Medicare and the law did not change that.
  • orried that insurers will eventually cut payments to those unaffiliated with hospitals, Emerus has started converting its facilities into "micro hospitals," with a few beds that treat patients such as those needing drug detox or hospice. The company has also recently partnered with Baylor Health System to jointly operate eight such "micro hospitals" in the Dallas area.
  • Mal Allison on 16 Jul 13
     
    "You can never have too much care for patients," says Rhonda Sandel, CEO of Texas Emergency Care Center.
Mal Allison

PwC's Health Research Institute projects historic slowdown in healthcare spending growt... - 0 views

www.pwc.com/...ojects-historic-slowdown.jhtml

Healthcare spending slowdown 2014 consumers

shared by Mal Allison on 09 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • Consumers, meanwhile, who are paying a greater share of the cost, are making spending adjustments.  Many are delaying care, using fewer services and choosing less expensive options such as retail clinics, urgent care centers and mobile health devices.
  • “Healthcare cost increases continue to exceed overall growth in wages, but the gap appears to be shrinking.  The long-term trends suggest that as the economy improves, the cycle of runaway cost increases will be broken,” said Michael Thompson, principal with PwC’s human resource services practice.  “This is critical as employers strategically reevaluate the role of healthcare benefits to their organizations and step up efforts to engage employees more directly in value-based healthcare decision making.”
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