Managed Care Friday

63: Portion of 316 retired physicians polled who say too many doctors, PAs and nurse practitioners overtest. If you’re looking for a measure of quality, I say take Hamlet’s cue and look at your practice’s testing behavior—to test or not to test is increasingly an important question in healthcare. Most of the retired doctors say we ought to use our personal experience with patients more often—our clinical judgment—as a guide when making decisions about whether to order a clinical lab or imaging to figure out what’s wrong. Too many do not lean on that personal experience enough, and it matters...

Weekly Medicaid Update

The brief highlights recent Medicaid policy developments in key states over the past week, including, but not limited to: CT: Will set health care price benchmarks to address rising healthcare costs ME: Will establish new adult dental benefit and rewrite children’s dental benefit NJ: Governor proposes wage increases for frontline workers FL: Releases RFI for next managed care reprocurement, scheduled for Q4 of 2022 Click to read more.

Managed Care Friday

4,000: The amount Amazon will pay annually for its employees to travel for non-life-threatening medical treatments. The new benefit, effective to January 1 retroactively, applies if a procedure or treatment is not available within 100 miles of an employee’s home and virtual care is not an option. The benefit is open to all US employees, at any level, with coverage through Aetna or Premera. Behaving Differently: More and more insurers are now designating so-called centers of excellence for behavioral health, the latest from BCBS Michigan, which now has 14 substance use treatment and recovery...