Category: Health Care Industry - Part 7

Opinion: Who is to blame for rising health costs?

By Robert Smith Princeton economics professor Uwe Reinharts strident New York Times editorial about the ultimate party responsible for out-of-control health care costs properly emphasizes the employers crucial role in the health care system. U.S companies, nonprofits and government entities pay for the majority of our health care costs. They have been the sloppiest purchasers of health care in the world, he writes, because they have passively paid for just about every health care bill put in front of them. Employer passivity has supported an opaque and chaotic pricing system, inappropriate incentives, rampant medical inflation, waste and lagging quality. Employers…

ABC’s ‘Extreme Weight Loss’ comes to Colorado

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Citing Colorados reputation as one of the healthiest states in the country, producers of ABCs Extreme Weight Loss are filming the launch of Season 4 at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. (The center) has one of the best weight-management programs in the world and promotes and advances a comprehensive approach to overall wellness, which is an equally important process, J.D. Roth, executive producer, said in a statement. The show documents the 365-day transformation of super-obese people and is expected to start airing in May of 2014. James O. Hill, executive director for the center at…

Opinion: Cuts to Medicare Part B will hurt older Coloradans

By Ron Haberkorn I proudly enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in Vietnam, but my longest and biggest battle has been against lupus. I was diagnosed in 1981. Little was known then about lupus and it still remains a mystery in the medical community today. Unfortunately, there is no known cure. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, kidneys, lungs, heart, nervous system and/or other body organs or systems. It acts as if the body is allergic to itself. It is estimated that over 20,000 Coloradans and 1…

Exchange bracing to slash $9 million

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Colorados health exchange managers are bracing to cut expenses by about $9 million because federal sequestration is expected to axe 7.5 percent from a $125 million federal grant designed to help launch the exchange. Exchange CEO and Executive Director Patty Fontneau said during a finance committee meeting this week that managers are expecting a 7.5 percent cut in the newest implementation grant. Fontneau said some programs might have to withstand higher cuts than others because managers have already signed some contracts for services or technology so they cannot spread the cuts evenly across all programs. Sequestration…

Obesity a disease, cure elusive

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon To call it a disease or not? That is the question. Since leaders of the American Medical Association last week trumped advice from their own committee of experts and declared obesity a disease, speculation has been rife. Will this be a game-changing decision? Or has the tree fallen in the forest and no one cares? Will insurers now pay for obesity care and prevention? Will people carting around extra pounds be convinced to take meds just like those with high blood pressure? Will doctors start talking about obesity with those of us who are elephants in…

Opinion: The cost curve on health care â itâs bending

By Bob Semro The biggest long-term concern with the American health care system is cost. The affordability of premiums, access to care and the impact of Medicare and Medicaid on state and federal budgets are all linked to the ever-rising costs of health care. Unless we bend the cost curve, the nations health care system will become increasingly unsustainable. The good news is that, even though costs and spending continue to increase, we have started to see a slowdown. Over the years, the news on this front has been consistently bad. For 31 of the last 40 years, health care…

Opinion: The pot calling the kettle black on Obamacare

By Francis M. Miller During the past month several reports have been published on cost variations in the health care system. Among medical providers, there is clear evidence of wide differences in costs and utilization both across geographic regions and institutions. When the Colorado 208 Commission studied the issue, it also found that there were great variations among what insurers, the government and individuals pay. And, recently, the Colorado Division of Insurance analyzed insurance proposals for the health exchange. Again, wide variations in insurance premiums are being proposed. Are such differences evidence of profiteering? Or, is this an opportunity for…

Opinion: Protecting Colorado health data while making costs transparent

By Tracey Campbell The news is riddled with stories of frustrations over the cost of health care and the lack of transparent information available to patients and employer purchasers. Look at the responses to the recent Time magazine article about bloated hospital costs, and the release of Medicare information about the wide variations in hospital pricing. Consumers are aghast at high and wildly varying prices, especially in light of little information about quality. The Colorado All-Payer Claims Database (APCD) is an essential tool for identifying differences in price and quality, and enabling consumers to shop for health care services in…

Health guides at 55 sites receive $17 million for outreach

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Fifty-five community groups and hospitals throughout Colorado have received $17 million in grants from Colorados health exchange to assist people in signing up for health insurance. Altogether 74 applicants had asked for more than $57 million, so the grant committee had to dramatically cut requested funds and some of the proposed assistance sites have backed out. Some of them are seriously weighing what they can do. We have had a couple of groups that have pulled out. We do have a few groups that are very much on the fence, said Adela Flores-Brennan, assistance network manager….

Opinion: Consumer revolution needed for real health care reform

By Francis M. Miller The launching of the exchange in October is taking on the appearance of the Kentucky Derby. The insurance companies are in the gates and the uninsured, if you believe Connect for Colorado ads, are drinking mint juleps and wearing big hats. I view all of this with a jaundiced eye. There is no doubt that health care has been on a slippery slope for years and the rocks at the bottom spell market failure. We have no other choice than to attribute the source of this failure to the players in the market. We place blame…