Archive for the ‘Behavior Change’ Category
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
This topic of "how to talk to your doctor about cost" has been addressed previuosly in this blog, but I want to bring it up again because it is a true culture change... and culture change is tough.
For medications:
When the doctor writes you a prescription, often he or she will ...
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Friday, February 20th, 2009
Many benefits consultants and human resources representatives I have spoken with are very focused on wellness programs as their main strategy for employee healthcare cost-containment. They want to not just lower their medical spend this year, but they also want the slow the rate of increase in the future.
Let me ...
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
An article in the New York times today reports on how the current economic situation is causing people to stop taking their medications. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/business/22drug.html?hp
I posted the following comment on that article's site:
There are many things that physicians can do to effectively lower the out-of-pocket costs for their patients without jeopardizing ...
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Thursday, October 9th, 2008
The Wall Street Journal (Matthews) recently reported in its article: The Open Enrollment Season: Beware of Out of Pocket Costs (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122348910616316019.html):
"Briggs & Stratton Corp., a Milwaukee-based maker of small engines and lawn mowers, has done away with most co-payments in its main plans -- a standard preferred-provider organization and a high-deductible ...
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Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
"The Employee Benefit Research Institute released its 11th annual Health Confidence Survey that found "a majority of Americans, 51 percent, want a 'major change,'...while 20 percent say that a complete overhaul of the health care system is necessary. Thirty-one percent would rate the American health care system as poor, and ...
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Friday, August 1st, 2008
This past Sunday in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Mike Stobbe wrote an article, "Booming business helps patients navigate medicine" about companies such as Compass who are helping guide patients through the healthcare process (http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/stories/2008/07/27/advocate.html). The article focuses primarily on a company called Health Advocate who for a few dollars per month makes ...
Posted in Behavior Change, Costs of Care | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
As I spend more time at industry functions, I have experienced a number of people speaking of consumer driven healthcare simply in terms of high deductible health plan. In reality, how large or small the deductible is has very little to do in terms of teaching people to be better ...
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Sunday, July 20th, 2008
According to recent research from the McKinsey Consulting Group, 39% of healthcare consumers seek this type of resource when trying to make decisions about their healthcare. It is the highest ranked category and perfectly fits the Compass PHS support model. Read here for more information: http://chilmarkresearch.com/2008/06/16/what-consumers-want-how-about-relevant-personal-advice/
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Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
Before I begin, it is important to define the word co-insurance. Co-insurance is simply the fixed percentage of total healthcare costs that an employee pays. Example: an employee with a 20% co-insurance benefit would pay $20 out of a $100 doctor bill. The employer or insurance company would pay the remaining ...
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Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
A great article came out on MSNBC “Where you live determines your quality of care ” - www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24777935/from/ET/. The point of this article was to illustrate how local / regional physician practices and hospital care patterns often determine the quality and type of care a patient receives. This is just one ...
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