The Health Care Cost Institute released an interactive report on U.S. health care spending by locality over the period 2012 through 2016. Healthcare Dive notes that “Despite huge variations between cities and towns, one trend held true: Over the four-year period, the average area saw healthcare prices rise 13% and utilization drop by 17%.”

Forbes comments on a recently announced strategic alliance between Blue Cross of North Carolina and Cambia Health Solutions “that merges operations and management of two companies operating Blues plans on the East and West coasts.

Reuters reports that “The rate of first-time opioid prescriptions declined 54 percent between 2012 and 2017 in the U.S., largely because many doctors stopped prescribing the painkillers, according to a study of more than 86 million people covered by private insurance.” That’s good news, and this pendulum swing mimic what happened in this country in the early 20th century according to the excellent Sam Quinones book Dreamland about this opioid catastrophe.  The problem for health plans at this stage is covering addiction treatment which made difficult by the fact that there is no unquestioned standard of care.

Healthcare Dive tells us that “Bipartisan leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have invited the five biggest pharmacy benefit managers to testify next month [April 3] on their role within the drug pricing system, the latest to take the hot seat on the topic.” The FEHBlog will keep an eye on that.

The FEHBlog was intrigued by this AHRQ news that the agency has released on the Apple Store and Google Play a free app called Question Builder. Patients can

Use the Question Builder app to:
Prepare and organize questions by type of medical encounter.
Take photos of insurance cards, pill bottles, or even a skin rash.
Access consumer education materials and videos. 

The agency notes that “All input resides on users’ own devices; nothing is stored in the app.” Health plans should publicize this app to their members.