Variability in Medicare Payments

Health Journalist Shannon Brownlee offers commentary on U.S. health care costs in the Baltimore Sun:

I have to refute one of the statement that she made however. Ms. Brownlee states that Medicare pays more to hospitals in L.A. than Salt Lake City because hospitals in L.A. have higher volumes. There are many factors that effect a hospitals payment from Medicare. There are labor market adjustments, disproportionate share adjustments, and the higher cost of living associated with living in a large metropolitan area.

Health Care Word of the Day - "Indication Creep"

Indication creep is defined as follows:

"An indication is a diagnosis of a disease, for which you have some treatment. So the indication here would be heart attack, or risk of heart attack. Statin studies have looked at people who are at very high risk of having another heart attack. ... You study these people and you find you can really reduce their risk of heart attack. OK, it's probably a good idea to prescribe these drugs to people who have heart attacks.

Then what happens is the manufacturer seeks to expand its market, and so the indication creeps outward, from people who have clearly benefited to more and more people for whom the evidence is much more shaky. We really don't have the evidence to say that giving statins to people who've never had a heart attack is going to reduce the risk of a heart attack. But they're given these drugs anyway because doctors think it's true and patients think it's true."

Interesting article that is flies in the face of consumer-directed healthcare.

The Uninsured Are Hot

Seems like more and more states are jumping on the Massachusetts bandwagon and updating their policies to cover more uninsured citizens.

Legislation in Ohio, Maryland, Washington

However, these reform bills are starting to find resistance from citizens and businesses across the country including the much publicized defeat of the California Health Reform Bill.

What's Your Bad Debt Policy?

Bad debt and charity...seems reasonably easy to differentiate the two. Many hospitals that I come into contact are confused when they are trying to report expenses related to these two categories. The Healthcare Financial Management Association is providing guidance on this issue. Their statement is as follows:

"The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) have clearly stated that charity care results from an entity's decision to forego revenue. Bad debts, on the other hand, result from the patient's nonpayment for services that have met the criteria for revenue recognition."

What it all costs

I stumbled across a very interesting website today. Understanding USA is website to celebrate a visual demonstration of questions and answers leading to understanding. I clicked around on it and there is information about health and the cost of health care. The text is a little small so be sure to check out the site. Maybe this will come in useful during a presentation.

Google Health

Some may be aware that Google has been working on a project to help consumers organize their health information. They call this venture Google Health and is slotted for debut sometime in 2008. It will be interesting to see how a company with the vast resources of Google is able to make inroads in the healthcare community. Kudos to the people at Google Blogoscoped for the updates they have on this project and all things Google for that matter

One of my favorite books

While this may not have much to do with healthcare, I thought I would recommend one of my favorite books that has helped my career. The book is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This book helped me think about how I set my goals for myself and for the organization that I work for. Enjoy!

Medicare Primer

The Kaiser Family Foundation has published a helpful pamphlet for those of us that need a refresher on how Medicare works.