Unemployment, Incentives Slow Demand for Medical Care
Moody's Investors Services issued a report last month attributing anemic growth in demand for medical care to two factors: lingering high unemployment and aggressive efforts among employers to slow employees' consumption of medical care. Among the specific employer strategies cited as playing a role in the slower-than-expected growth rates: higher deductibles; higher co-pays; growing use of high deductible plans.
Lost Job = Lost Coverage, Usually
A new report by The Commonwealth Fund found that over the last two years 57 percent of adults who lost a job that had health benefits subsequently joined the ranks of the uninsured. But the 52 million working adults who went without coverage for all or part of 2010 have something to look forward to: in 2014 nearly all of them will be covered by the (then operational) health exchanges.
Ohio Employers Offer Advice on Tackling Variation, Collaboratively
An Ohio–based collaborative of employers, physicians, and a local hospital system joined forces beginning in 2005 to encourage physicians to follow best practice guidelines, especially for chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. Learn more about how the effort boosted area mammography rates by 64 percent, cut emergency room visits by 14 percent, tripled the colonoscopy rate among those 50 and older, and even helped patients with diabetes better control their blood sugar.
