Simplify & Control Healthcare Costs
Did you know that in 2015, the cost of healthcare for a typical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) plan is $24,671 according to the Milliman Medical Index (MMI)? The cost for this family has nearly tripled since Milliman began tracking this information in 2001. This creates a Read More
Did you know that a survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans reveals that 62% of companies facing a 40% Cadillac tax hit in 2018 are already changing their coverage to avoid it? Conversely, only 2.5 percent of companies say they will pay it. How do you avoid it? Change to higher deductible Read More
Did you know that the United States spends 18% of its GNP on healthcare, more than 50% higher than the Netherlands, who is the second highest spender? Why does the United States spend so much more? The biggest reason is that U.S. healthcare delivers a more expensive mix of services. For example, a much larger Read More
Did you know that 9 New York doctors are indicted in March 2015 on Medicaid fraud using homeless people as patients? The doctors offered free shoes as an inducement to be subjected to a raft of unnecessary medical tests and equipment prescriptions. These tests led to $7 million in false Medicare and Medicaid billings between Read More
Did you know that a recent announcement by wearable device pioneer Fitbit and IBM Watson’s healthcare unit will rapidly democratize access to personal health data, as well as access to complex computational capability and placing it, literally, in people’s hands? Separately, IBM Watson Healthcare announced a major push into the healthcare analytics space through strategic Read More
Did you know that Medical Loss Ratio is arguably the single most important financial measure in the healthcare world? For an insurance company, it represents how much of the annual premiums goes toward medical expenses versus marketing, administration and insurance company profit. It is now legislatively limited to 20% on small company plans and 15% Read More
Did you know that the median amount that a Blue Cross insurer paid for an angioplasty in Los Angeles was between $10,749 and $67,937, a 532% difference and the most extreme variation in the report? In Chicago, Blue Cross reimbursed providers between $15,951 and $49,604 for the same types of angioplasties, a 211% difference. There Read More
Did you know that Medicare is stepping up its efforts to reduce hospital readmissions? Last year, nearly 18 percent of Medicare patients (roughly 2 million patients) who had been hospitalized were readmitted within a month. This costs Medicare (and taxpayers) nearly $26 billion per year, of which $17 billion is considered avoidable. Fines over the Read More
Did you know that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) publishes a list of over 125,000 healthcare providers that have been banned from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, etc.? Exclusions are based on conviction of program-related crimes, healthcare fraud, patient neglect/abuse, controlled substance conviction and more. Read More
Did you know that every medical provider in the country is assigned a unique identifier like a social security number, referred to as an NPI number (National Provider Identifier)? This is used to track that provider’s activity, and is used for government reporting to track questionable payment patterns.Read More
