The pandemic has dried up big parts of hospitals’ businesses, and that’s why Congress established a $175 billion bailout fund to help them. At the same time, they’re spending millions on lawyers and advisers to explore deals that expand their business empires. When a merger or acquisition occurs in healthcare, the conjoining providers often say that…
The cost of hospital admission for patients with the coronavirus can top tens of thousands of dollars, and there have been hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations just in the early months of the pandemic. However, social distancing measures, concerns over hospital capacity, and fears of contracting the virus are leading to some other healthcare being delayed or…
The disruption caused to the economy by COVID-19 will create a strong push to let more Americans buy into Medicare! According to KFF, 2.5 million adults ages 55 to 64 lost their jobs since March, bringing the unemployment rate for this cohort to over 12.5% (was 3.4% prior to March). A large porting of this cohort…
Four Common Missteps That Leaders Make When Under Pressure To Reduce Costs! Current economic conditions caused by the pandemic are forcing health systems to hurriedly concentrate on cost reduction strategies. We have uncovered four (4) common missteps that leaders make when under pressure to reduce costs: Misstep # 1: Stop treating a sizeable share of…
In the 1990s, Taiwan did what has long been considered impossible in the US: The island of 24 million people took a fractured and inequitable health care system and transformed it into something as close to Medicare-for-all as anything in the world.Read HERE to learn what it takes to set up and sustain such a system.
According to a JAMA review, the waste in the U.S. healthcare system costs from $760 to $935 billion annually, roughly one-quarter of all U.S. healthcare spending, The two previous studies on the subject from 2012 estimated waste at roughly 30% and 34% – a key reason why the new study’s estimate is lower than previous ones is…
Almost all of the major health insurance companies are spending more on medical care this year than they have in the past. Rising prices and more services for sicker patients are among the many reasons why this is happening. That uptick in spending has freaked out Wall Street, even though insurers are still quite profitable.…
In 2019, the cost of healthcare for a hypothetical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) plan is $28,386, according to the Milliman Medical Index – Healthcare costs are increasing at a slower rate estimate costs grew by 2.9% from 2017 to 2018, and then 3.8% from 2018 to…
Hospitals represent the largest chunk of U.S. health care spending, and hospitals are acquiring more market power and commanding higher prices — bills that every American pays for in some part. A report funded by the American Hospital Association claims hospital mergers result in better care and savings for patients. But all independent studies show…
The amount of money Americans have to pay out of pocket for healthcare expenses before their insurance kicks in is now double what it was a decade ago. The average deductible for an individual is $1,655 a year, roughly double the $826 workers paid about a decade ago, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual…
