Aug 26, 2022 | Managed Care Friday
6.5%: The average increase in US employers spend for employee healthcare coverage in 2023 compared to this year, according to an Aon report, bringing the average cost per employee to around $13,800. The year-over-year rise between 2021 and 2022 was only 3.7%, indicating inflation will likely begin to show up in healthcare costs next year. Because healthcare providers are often in years-long contracts with insurers, the impact is not always felt as immediately as in other industries. Capping PT Pay: A growing number of insurers are capping the amount PTs and OTs can get paid per visit. A...
Aug 19, 2022 | Managed Care Friday
80: Percent of the total cost that Bluebird Bio will return to insurers if their new FDA-approved gene therapy Zynteglo doesn't stop the need for patients to get regular blood transfusions. The gene therapy costs $2.8 million. Bundle This: We did a poll of 932 parents about what influences their healthcare usage. The amount of time they have to reschedule or miss appointments is going up, and if it were them, they would put pediatrics, dental, orthodontics and physical therapy into one center with a gym. "I'd want the gym for me," quips Molly Rastro, 37, of Connecticut, who says she's...
Aug 12, 2022 | Managed Care Friday
70,000: The number of new healthcare jobs added in July, according to the Labor Department’s monthly job report, bringing the industry within 0.5% of its February 2020 employment level. In a sign of the way healthcare is moving, the majority of those jobs were in ambulatory services, ~47,000 compared to just 13,000 in hospitals. 9,000 new jobs were in nursing and residential care facilities. Drug Cost Sea Change: CivicaScript, part of a nonprofit launched by several health systems and 18 BCBS plans, launched its first drug this month, abiraterone, the generic form of Zytiga. Prostate cancer...
Aug 5, 2022 | Managed Care Friday
$906: The average out-of-pocket cost for people with employer-sponsored insurance in 2019, compared to just $737 in 2013. A new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows that the share of medical expenses paid by people enrolled in employer-sponsored coverage increased from 17.4% in 2013 to 19% in 2019. Out-of-pocket expenses dipped in 2020, probably due to the pandemic, but as these costs continue to rise, more and more insured patients are likely struggling to afford healthcare visits and procedures on top of their monthly premiums. This could lead to deferred care,...
Jul 29, 2022 | Managed Care Friday
1 in 100,000: Prevalence of Addison’s Disease, which Professor Jiwa Moyez says is a good example of the difficulty physicians can have in diagnosing patient symptoms and over-alerting them without appreciating the stress. Particularly for rare conditions that often require multiple tests before a diagnosis can be confirmed, and that are in all likelihood going to rule out the condition eventually. “The patient has to live with the idea that the test is positive” – or going to be, says Moyez, the associate dean of health innovation at The University of Notre Dame, Australia. The diagnostic...
Jul 22, 2022 | Managed Care Friday
60: The percent of doctors who said they’d retire if they could, according to one of our polls. The number is both alarming and unsurprising, but there may be hope, according to Paul Rudd’s character in Anchorman. “60% of the time, it works every time,” Rudd said about his potent cologne, which Ron Burgundy sternly replied in a way that only Will Ferrell can, “Well that just doesn’t make sense.” But Rudd’s stat isn’t so illogical if you think about it. In baseball, 60% gets you in the Hall of Fame, in high school it gets you a diploma and in healthcare it can get you “coverage” for novel...
