Day: October 25, 2014

  All of us have purchased a vehicle at some time in our life. Vehicles are essential these days. It’s tough to walk those 20 miles to work in the morning, much less walking back after the five o-clock siren. So how many of you have paid the sticker price on a new vehicle? Probably not, right? Well, how about health care? Do you have one of those nifty health insurance policies to pave the way to financial bliss and happiness? It’s that darn deductible that seems to get in the way every year! Unfortunately you may find your deductible is based on sticker prices…………….

Continue reading Are You Paying The Sticker Price? If So, Your An Idiot!

By Anne Zieger | October 24, 2014

Dive Brief:

• A new study by researchers from UC Berkeley has concluded that hospital ownership of physician groups in California generated 10% to 20% higher overall costs for patient care.
• The research, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that total spending per patient was 10.3% higher for hospital-owned physician offices than with doctor-owned practices. Meanwhile, when health systems ran multiple hospital-owned groups, per-patient spending was 19.8% higher.
• One factor in the higher costs observed by researchers is that newly-acquired physician groups often face pressure to refer patients to more expensive imaging and outpatient treatments that can be less expensive at freestanding clinics.

Continue reading Costs At Hospital-Owned Physician Groups Up To 20% Higher