Weekend update

David Ermer–Uncategorized–

Congress is resuming its work on Capitol Hill this week following the President’s holiday state work period.
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Healthcare Dive reports that according to a new Avalere report

  • The number of hospital-acquired physician practices grew from 35,700 in 2012 to more than 80,000 in January 2018, and
  • A hospital or health system employed about 25% of U.S. physicians in 2012. That percentage nearly doubled to 44% in 2018.
This change, which the Affordable Care Act pushed, makes it harder for patient to rely on their doctors for independent health care system navigation advice. 
The American Hospital Association and related organizations released principles on informing the debate over how to resolve the surprise billing problem. The FEHBlog’s preferred approach is for the hospitals to requires that their related physicians and practice groups to contract with at least the same group of health plans as the hospital does. Simple fix and it appears from the Healthcare Dive that the hospitals have quite a deal of leverage over the related doctors and practice groups. 
On the opioid abuse front —
  • Medpage Today informs us about a new report that identifies opioid “epidemic hot spots — areas that have high opioid mortality that is rapidly getting worse.”

“Opioid overdose deaths climbed fastest in the District of Columbia, more than tripling every year since 2013. Eight states — Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio — had opioid-related mortality rates that at least doubled every 3 years. Two states — Florida and Pennsylvania — had opioid-related mortality rates that at least doubled every 2 years. The increase in mortality rates in the east seemed driven primarily by synthetic opioids, which followed a distinctive geographic pattern across the country.”

  • The Providence (RI) Journal reports on a recently rolled out United Healthcare policy focused on educating oral surgeons and dentists about the epidemic. 

“Sometimes overlooked in the opioid epidemic is the role played by dentists and oral surgeons, who often prescribe opioids for pain relief after removal of wisdom teeth and other procedures. A new campaign by UnitedHealthcare aims to raise awareness of this factor in the crisis — and offer advice to healthcare professionals and patients about alternatives to addictive drugs to ease discomfort.

“’We want to focus on prevention,’ Dr. Ted Wong, UnitedHealthcare chief dental officer, told The Providence Journal in a recent interview. “We want to address all potential factors” in an epidemic that results in an average of 130 deaths of Americans by opioid overdose every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Recently the FEHBlog noted that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had made available a Medicare What’s Covered app in the Apple and Google Play online stores. Kaiser Health News reports on Medicare beneficiary difficulties with the new app. The article may be useful to FEHB plan carriers are a good chunk of FEHB membership is also eligible for Medicare.