Do not skip the appendices. That is what I learned the other day while researching the drivers of high-cost health care. Somehow, I stumbled into “Appendix E: Epidemiology of Serious Illness and High Utilization of Health Care” from Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life.1 This fascinating Appendix … Continued
As our country debates who should pay for healthcare, we continue to sidestep a fundamental problem: the U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other country, approximately $3.2 trillion in 2015, but we under perform on all key health outcomes relative to other industrialized nations.1–3 To overcome these challenges, top health economists point to the … Continued
Research has shown strong relationships between employee health and productivity, and companies are increasingly turning to wellness programs to improve employee health in an effort to become more competitive. However, with an aging U.S. workforce, employees retiring later, and a high prevalence of chronic diseases, wellness programs alone are not a complete solution for health … Continued
Those of you who have attended Reed Group’s prior Quarterly Compliance Webinars may recall a previous discussion of whether or not morbid obesity is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Today, we consider a case where a federal court in the Ninth Circuit is taking a different tack from the Equal … Continued
How do you deliver on the promise of improved outcomes while still tightly managing costs? That’s a question that more than 700 ACOs face every day.[1] It’s also the same dilemma payers and employers have wrestled with for years, which is why it’s critical to learn from their approach. By leveraging both evidence-based guidelines and physiological … Continued
By Megan Holstein, Esq., Director of Compliance In a recent court ruling, Judge Richard Posner, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, cited Reed Group’s DisabilityGuidelines™ as a pivotal tool in the decision making process for Kauffman v. Petersen Health Care. The court ruled on behalf of the plaintiff, finding that … Continued
A bill signed into US law on April 1, 2014 prohibits the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from adopting ICD-10-CM prior to October, 2015. We know that some Reed Group DisabilityGuidelines™ subscribers are doing a happy dance at this news. Others are grinding their teeth and adding up the accumulating costs of … Continued
Opioids have gotten a ton of attention lately from the mainstream media (here’s one sample, from National Public Radio) which is great news – the public needs to know more about the serious risks that accompany opioid use, since opioids currently cause about 16,000 fatalities annually in the US alone, up from 14,800 in 2008. Reed … Continued
