Healthcare Costs on the Rise in Workers’ Compensation

Medical inflation in workers’ compensation is back. This article in Managed Care Matters documents the trends that we have seen in our own data.  Studies in IN, VA and NJ show significant increases.  Facility and hospital costs are driving a lot of this increase. For those of you who do not know the trends in the industry,

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ASC Behavior and Payment Disparity

Outpatient surgery in an Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) costs much less than in an outpatient hospital setting or ASC owned by a hospital.  The gap has been growing due to the need for ASCs to compete and be efficient, and regulations and rates as defined by the largest payer in the country, Medicare.ASC reimbursement rates vs.

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Freedom: Ron Paul Farewell

America was founded and successful based on two principles.  Liberty (or freedom) and opportunity.  Actually, with pure and true liberty, opportunity is a given.  Liberty was the primary basis of America at the onset.  It was what made us great.  Unfortunately, I believe the meaning and understanding of the word has been lost on most

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The Primal Origins of Morality and Bias

CBS’ 60 Minutes aired an amazing episode Nov. 18, 2012.  It was a special on what aspects of morality and bias are innate. Yale University’s Baby Lab studied babies as young as three months old, as well as children of differing ages and came to some interesting conclusions: 1) Babies overwhelmingly prefer puppets that are nice to other

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Pay Yourself First

One of the first lessons I learned in personal finance was the principle of “paying yourself first.” We all want to save … for retirement; for a bigger house; for school; for safety; for a new toy.  The key to reaching these goals is the concept of “paying yourself first.”  Before spending a dime, pull out your savings

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Leadership vs. Management

Leadership and management are two very different things. Leadership “pulls” people. Management “pushes” people. Everyone knows traditional management.  Check on the team to make sure they are working.  Clock breaks and punch out time.  If people don’t comply, there are consequences.  In bad situations, it can be exhausting and draining for both the person being managed

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EMRs: The Law of Unintended Consequences

The government has been pushing for electronic medical record keeping for many years.  The thought was it would drive efficiencies, reduce costs and improve care.  Billions in incentives have been spent trying to get hospitals and providers to upgrade their systems to allow for electronic medical record keeping.This New York Times article shows that Medicare

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