Health Wonk Review: Dog Daze 2013
It's the dog days of August but judging from the quantity and quality of submissions, health care bloggers have kept wonking away. I joyfully present the latest edition of the Health Wonk Review.Insurance anyone?Colorado Health Insurance Insider argues that the true measure of insurance market competition is the number of carriers participating, not the total number of plans offered.Health Affairs Blog documents the eye opening variations in insurance premiums offered on the new exchanges and then explores the implications for policy.Druggie cornerHealthcare Economist challenges the conventional wisdom that the pace of drug approvals is slowing over time.Health Care Renewal cites a Guardian article documenting the use of patient advocacy groups in pharmaceutical company PR campaigns.The ObamaCare battlesE.D. Bellis notes that the football season is about to start, but the real heavy hitting is likely to be off the field as the Obama Administration gears up for ACA implementation and Republicans try to stop it.Conservatives may be conservative when it comes to attire, but according to healthinsurance.org, many are cynically encouraging young people to "go naked" by not buying health insurance.Insure Blog predicts the demise of the ObamaCare Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs) and explains why he is not surprised.Keeping costs in checkJohn Goodman's Health Policy Blog documents the stunning cost containment results California employers are achieving through the use of reference pricing.Diabetes + Innovation speaks with the co-founder of a new model of primary care, who argues for doubling the country's investment in primary care in order to save on overall expenditures.Care deliveryThe Hospitalist Leader provides a view into two radically different end-of-life experiences.Healthcare Talent Transformation notices that ACOs are experiencing plenty of challenges in their quest to coordinate care.Policy mattersManaged Care Matters delves into the feds' work on outcomes research via PPACA and ARRA, AHRQ and the Clinical and Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness (CHOICE) program, and notes several research efforts specific to musculo-skeletal issues common in workers' comp.Minnesota Community Measurement President Jim Chase is all for transparency, but isn't too impressed by a proposal to dump all Medicare claims data into a searchable public database.Wing of Zock argues that since the health care world is undergoing a seismic shift from volume to value, it's time for health care ratings and statistics to follow along.Workers' Comp Insider shares the insight that regulators and courts have a major influence on treatment in workers comp cases.--By David E. Williams of the Health Business Group.