SimpleSaveRx realizes that a change is needed in the healthcare industry to make prescriptions work more like everything else in business and less like healthcare. SimpleSaveRx, by focusing on prescriptions, will enable members to achieve the greatest savings possible per prescription.
Month: September 2015
The Future of Doctors
By Robert E.H. Khoo, M.D., F.R.C.S.(C), F.A.C.S.
I predict that within 20-30 years the computer will replace the venerable physician……
Mulebriar Offers Rx Cost Containment Strategy
Continue reading Mulebriar Offers Rx Cost Containment Strategy
Court Case Exposes Industry Secret – Hidden Fees Within PPO “Discounts”
“The hidden fees were listed in internal BCBSM documents under a variety of names: provider network fees, contingency/risk fees, retiree surcharges, and—my personal favorite—other-than-group subsidy fees. Internal company emails showed that BCBSM knew customers were unaware of the markups and that the company actually trained its employees to downplay the hidden fees should customers suspect they were being gouged.”
Editor’s Note: How many lawsuits do you want to research before you decide the truth insurance companies don’t want you to know? Anheuser Busch vs Cigna, Oakland County vs BCBS, Weslaco ISD vs Aetna, and Hi-Lex Controls vs BCBS all expose how carriers often earn undisclosed fees through PPO contract arrangements.
Continue reading Court Case Exposes Industry Secret – Hidden Fees Within PPO “Discounts”
Employers Shift More Costs To Workers
Associated Press
Employers are leaving a bigger chunk of the bill for care to workers who use their health insurance, and benefits experts see few signs of this trend slowing.
Why Single-Payer Health Coverage May Be The Nation’s Future
Are you kidding me? The federal government “may be tempted” to eliminate health insurers?
Continue reading Why Single-Payer Health Coverage May Be The Nation’s Future
Drug Goes From $13.50 A Tablet To $750 Overnight
Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.
The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Continue reading Drug Goes From $13.50 A Tablet To $750 Overnight
Frustration of Purpose & Assignment of Benefits
‘”When a patient offers their right to obtain benefits from their insurance, that assignment of benefits is in and of itself consideration in full, exchanged for services and treatment. An assignment of benefits is thus not a form of access to consideration, and rather, is the consideration itself. One might ask why a medical service provider would ever choose to accept an assignment of benefits in lieu of the right to bill a patient for 100%.” – Adam Russo
“An assignement of benefits contract may (can, will) create a frustration of purpose” – Molly Mulebriar
Continue reading Frustration of Purpose & Assignment of Benefits
Dr. Belk Issues Financials On PBM’s
The actual purpose of a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) is somewhat questionable. Their stated purpose is to mediate prescription medications prices for insurance companies. What’s interesting is the fact that over 80% of prescription drugs sold since 2012 are generic which means that most of these medications are inexpensive to begin with. What’s more, there’s no evidence that PBMs provide any real discounts to the prices of brand name medications.
Big Government Grants Permission For Business To Expand
Feds give approval for Doctors Hospital at Renaissance to double in size
STAFF REPORT | Posted 3 days ago
EDINBURG — Federal officials have granted a request by Doctors Hospital at Renaissance to double its size, which would make it the largest hospital in the Rio Grande Valley, according to a news release Wednesday evening.
Continue reading Big Government Grants Permission For Business To Expand
9.5% ACA Max Cost = Boon To Entitlement Crowd?
By Molly Mulebriar
I recently presented a renewal to a client. The audience was the owner and his secretarial staff. When I mentioned that under the ACA, one of the requirements to maintain an “approved” plan was the prohibition of charging plan participants more than 9.5% of their gross income for individual coverage.
Continue reading 9.5% ACA Max Cost = Boon To Entitlement Crowd?
The Easiest $1,000 You’ve Ever Made
Due to the incredible success of our Reference Based Reimbursement solution, we are looking to add two new sales professionals to the AMPS team.
Local Provider Participation Fund
Teacher Strike A Great Opportunity To Solve Health Care Costs
By Dave Chase
The impact out-of-control healthcare costs has been devastating to school funding. Have you ever wondered why class sizes have increased, after school programs have been cut and most teachers haven’t received a raise since 2000 (adjusting for inflation)?
It is directly linked to healthcare as the graphic below demonstrates. In “Teacher Unions On Wrong Side Of Negotiating Table,” I included more disturbing datapoints from Bill Gates’s TED Talk about how healthcare is devastating education.
That article also includes links to how the math simply can’t work without tackling health benefits in a fundamentally different manner.
Continue reading Teacher Strike A Great Opportunity To Solve Health Care Costs
Trivia Quiz
What does Anheuser Busch vs Cigna, Oakland County vs BCBS and Weslaco ISD vs Aetna have in common?
A. All Three are lawsuits
B. All PPO contracts are contracts of adhesion
C. PPO “discounts” are not entirely passed on to the consumer
D. All of the above
Caution: No Cheating Allowed! Do not Google Search before taking this quiz
Not A $1,000 Toothbrush, But Close!
“We just picked up a claim from a hospital in Nebraska with a charge for $500 to borrow a baby seat to transport a new born from the hospital to home. Seat has to be returned of course. “
Edinburg ISD Issues Gag Order During RFP Process
“To go from being ranked 2, 3 or 4 to #1 based upon a 20 minute presentation is a formidable task. To do so under a gag order takes it into the realm of impossibility.”
Continue reading Edinburg ISD Issues Gag Order During RFP Process
Brownsville ISD To Terminate BCBS – Hires UHC
To simply change TPA’s to continue to manage claims under secretive managed care contracts which the district can’t see nor audit will not produce different results by lowering costs. The definition of insanity can be applied here.
Continue reading Brownsville ISD To Terminate BCBS – Hires UHC