We've all wished at times that we could just chat with a doctor from our office, instead of taking time away from work to drive to the clinic. Now, a case study of medical care delivered online suggests that virtual visits can effectively treat some common ailments at a lower cost than in-person visits. A report by the creators of the Virtuwell clinic, an online service started more than two years ago by the HealthPartners health care system in Minnesota that has handled roughly 40,000 cases, says that such visits were, on average, $88 less expensive than treatment provided in traditional settings.
President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address Tuesday that healthcare costs are the biggest driver of U.S. debt, but offered no new proposals for reining in those costs. "Those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms—otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations," Obama said. His proposals to reduce entitlement spending hewed to ideas he has already proposed in all or nearly all of his budget proposals as president.
WellPoint Inc., the second-biggest U.S. health insurer, has picked a new chief executive officer from outside the industry who says his work with hospitals and doctors will help smooth the insurer's path in a time of change. WellPoint named Joseph Swedish, 61, CEO of the nonprofit Catholic hospital system Trinity Health Corp., as its next leader after a six-month search. He replaces Angela Braly, who left WellPoint last year amid investor discontent over the Indianapolis-based insurer's performance.
When a private oncology practice in Memphis formed a partnership with a nearby hospital in late 2011, the organizations proclaimed that the deal would "transform cancer care" in the region. What they did not emphasize was that the deal would also create a windfall for them worth millions of dollars a year, courtesy of an obscure federally mandated drug discount program. The program, known as 340B, requires most drug companies to provide hefty discounts—typically 20 to 50 percent—to hospitals and clinics that treat low-income and uninsured patients.
The University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center failed a critical federal inspection and has been unable to collect what is likely millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements from the federal government since Dec. 1. As part of its takeover of the troubled St. Joseph that day, the University of Maryland voluntarily gave up a certification needed to bill Medicare and applied for a new one. The university health system wanted to disassociate itself from problems the hospital faced under its previous owner, Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives.
There haven't been many happy stories to cut through the doom and gloom surrounding America's out-of-control, paycheck eating, budget-busting healthcare costs. But here's one of them, graphed by researchers at the Altarum Institute. Over the past decade, the growth of total U.S. medical spending has actually slowed by about half, falling from an annual rate of more than 8 percent in 2003 to 4 percent in 2012.