The high cost of health care is persisting during the pandemic, even for people lucky enough to still have job-based insurance. The average annual cost of a health plan covering a family rose to $ 21,342 in 2020, according to the latest survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group that tracks employer-based coverage.… Read More »
Into the sixth month of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., it’s clear that COVID-19 has wreaked a greater mortality and morbidity impact on people of color than on white adults. A new Gallup-West Health poll found that the coronavirus also concerns more non-white Americans than whites when it comes to the cost of health… Read More »
Health systems need to rethink how they view wasteful practices to reduce costs, according to Rhonda Stewart, the senior transformation sensei at the Virginia Mason Institute. “What I want to talk about is to hopefully inspire [health systems] to think about reducing costs differently,” she said in a session at the Healthcare Financial Management Association… Read More »
Medicaid may be the best driver for healthcare cost reductions, according to Dr. Anita Cattrell, chief innovation officer for Evolent Health, which works with provider-led Medicaid plans to coordinate medical care with social resources for housing, food and behavioral health counseling. Cattrell co-developed Evolent’s Social Needs Index, which flags to physicians when aggregated data suggests… Read More »