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How analytics can help employers measure and manage risks
May 24, 2013Using health care analytics — sometimes called business intelligence — researchers and consultants are mining clinical and claims data to discover gold standards and establish best practices for prevention, treatment and self care and, ideally, help reduce waste, abuse and fraud. The goals are simple but have remained elusive.
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Childhood mental illness costs $247 billion as U.S. cases rise
May 20, 2013Meanwhile, doctors are protesting new guidance for the diagnosis of some mental disorders, including autism, contained in the revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
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Employers’ confidence in health plans rising
May 20, 2013Sixty-nine percent of employers tells the IFEBP that they definitely plan to provide employer-sponsored health care when exchanges begin in 2014; in 2012, only 46% of companies were willing to commit to that.
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Projected retirement health care costs drop
May 16, 2013A 65-year-old couple exiting the workforce in 2013 is estimated to need $220,000 to cover health care costs throughout their retirement, an 8% decrease from last year’s $240,000.
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HSA accounts continue to grow, Fidelity reports
May 14, 2013On average, employees with both 401(k)s and health savings accounts tend to save more of their annual salaries (8.5% average annual deferral rate) in their DC accounts than employees with just a DC plan (8.1%).
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Hospital fees vary across U.S. for same treatment, data show
May 9, 2013The data from more than 3,000 hospitals that take Medicare, the government’s health program for the elderly, showed that in some cases costs can drastically vary for hip replacements, bone fractures and treatments for kidney failure. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it released the data for the first time to make the overall health system “more affordable and accountable.”
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Most Americans ill-prepared for critical illness
May 9, 2013Ninety percent of Americans lack confidence that they have enough savings to cover emergencies and the long-term implications of serious illnesses, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s or heart disease, reports the National Institute for Wellness Solutions.
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Health Management receives SEC subpoena on payment records
May 7, 2013Health Management was thrown into the spotlight in December when the CBS Corp. television program “60 Minutes” aired a report criticizing the company’s emergency room practices. The company at the time called the report inaccurate.
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UnitedHealthcare reports success with diabetes program
May 1, 2013A two-year study from UnitedHealthcare shows its disease management program for diabetes can help people with the condition manage it more effectively, while also reducing related costs for employers.
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Most states fail transparency scorecard
May 1, 2013Thirty-six states received either a D or an F in a report card, issued by two nonprofit organizations, measuring the strength of health care price transparency laws.
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Complying with same-sex marriage laws: 5 tips
May 1, 2013Although the Supreme Court only recently took up the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, the issue has been around since the early 2000s, when large employers began to voluntarily offer health coverage to same-sex domestic partners.
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Survey: Workers wildly unprepared for health care changes
April 29, 2013A full three-quarters of the workforce thinks their employer will educate them about changes to their health care coverage as a result of reform, but only 13% of employers say educating employees about health care reform is important to their organization.
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Study: More than two-thirds of ER visits avoidable
April 25, 2013Reinforcing other studies, Truven finds that more than two-thirds of the 6.5 million emergency department visits during the study period for those under the age of 65 were avoidable and could have saved employers and health plans millions.
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Nondiscrimination rules an elephant in the room
April 22, 2013As most employers worry about whether to “pay or play” as of 2014 and whether or not certain employees will need to be counted as full-time for health care reform purposes, there is an elephant in the room: the approaching nondiscrimination rules that apply to all health plans that are not grandfathered.
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Supreme Court issues decision in U.S. Airways v. McCutchen
April 18, 2013The case raised the issue of whether a benefit plan administrator is entitled to full reimbursement for payments made to a plan participant injured in an accident where the participant sues and recovers damages from a third party.
