Jun 11, 2019 | Legislation/ Budgets/ Macro
CBO releases an annual list of budget deficit reduction options, that includes both spending cuts and tax increases. As the federal fiscal position deteriorates rapidly in the 2020s policies similar to some or all of the CBO options will begin to appear on the policy agenda. The 2019 list includes policies with significant impacts on Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing and hospitals. Click to read more.
Jun 2, 2019 | Legislation/ Budgets/ Macro
President Trump has issued an executive order directing federal agencies to implement several healthcare policy initiatives. The most significant policy goal is increased healthcare price transparency, but the EO also contained directives related to several other issues including HSAs, surprise billing, and medical research. Click to read more.
May 31, 2019 | Managed Care Friday
67: My high schooler is getting roped into two things – kids asking him to do juul or vape and online gamers called Hofr urging him to predict results from the NBA finals without paying a dime. Jack isn’t biting on the juul offer, thankfully, but he and buddies are all-in on the latest pre-gambling addiction craze Hofr. It seems harmless, but in a straw poll of 74 boys in my son’s high school, 67 of them are betting on these games ‘almost daily.’ This may seem outside of managed care trends but if you look closely it’s another symptom of the iphone generation’s obsession with their apps –...
May 24, 2019 | Managed Care Friday
1. 16: Number of cancer groups participating in Humana’s new oncology payment model for Medicare Advantage and commercial patients. The program is in its 5th month – but efforts to pay differently for cancer aren’t new by any stretch. Before the days of ‘value-based payment’ there were pioneers at Aetna and Humana designing shared savings models from scratch. The model is the fourth for the plan to target specialty services – orthopedics, maternity, and spinal fusion for MA patients. 2. The Cayman’s: Perhaps not a fit for the big insurers, but a handful of medical groups taking global risk...
