Category Archives: Health Care Cost

Physicians, Health Systems and the Drive For Market Dominance

Brian Klepper Posted 5/23/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care & Cost Blog Several physicians have reached out recently to discuss attractive employment offers from health systems. They are invariably conflicted. They understand the trade-offs, that they’ll give up the autonomy they’ve … Continue reading

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Posted in Policy/Law/Regulation, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Quality, Reform, Physicians, Politics, Health Care Cost | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Using Strong Carrots and Sticks To Drive Health Care That Works

Brian Klepper Posted 5/09/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care & Cost Blog On a recent call with a large manufacturer, my company’s team expected to describe how we develop primary care medical homes that become platforms for managing comprehensive health care clinical and financial … Continue reading

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Posted in Benefits, Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Policy/Law/Regulation, Quality | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Why Aren’t Primary Care Physicians More Ticked off about the RUC? An Interview with Brian Klepper

Brandon Glenn Published 4/30/13 in Medical Economics If primary care physicians have a bigger enemy than the RUC, Brian Klepper, PhD, hasn’t heard about it. The American Medical Association’s (AMA) Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) is a 31-physician panel that wields enormous influence … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Brian Klepper, Health Care Cost, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Physician Practices Can Prepare for a Health Care Marketplace

Brian Klepper Posted 4/21/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care and Cost Blog What is the path forward for physicians who want to remain in private practice, outside the constraints of health system employment? How will the environment change and what new demands … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Brian Klepper, Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Seriously Testing The ACO Waters

Brian Klepper Published April 2013 in Accountable Care News If necessity is the mother of invention, then tentativeness and ambiguity are the parents of procrastination. In health care, fee-for-service remains the dominant paradigm, so the ACO movement, lacking almost any … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Innovation, Medical Management, Politics, Quality, Reform | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

When Employers Get Serious About Managing Health Care Risk

Brian Klepper Posted 4/07/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care & Cost Blog Last week I visited with Gary Rost, an unassumingly knowledgeable man and the Executive Director of the Savannah Business Group (SBG), arguably one of the most effective health care coalitions … Continue reading

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Posted in Benefits, Brian Klepper, Consumerism, Health Care Cost, Innovation, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality, Special, Tools | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Why Only Business Can Save America From Health Care

Brian Klepper Posted 3/24/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care and Cost Blog For a large and growing number of us with meager or no coverage, health care is the ultimate “gotcha.” Events conspire, we receive care and then are on the … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Benefits, Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality, Reform | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

The Reality of Health Care Cost

Brian Klepper This beautifully written letter was forwarded after an interview with me on health care cost appeared in a Florida newspaper. Many of us with coverage often think in abstract terms about working families that do not have access to employer-sponsored … Continue reading

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Posted in Benefits, Brian Klepper, Consumerism, Health Care Cost, Market Dynamics, Policy/Law/Regulation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why EHRs Really Haven’t Made Us Healthier: A Response To Glen Tullman

Brian Klepper Recently-fired Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman waxed progressive in a self-promotional Forbes article last week, describing the ways past and forward for electronic health records (EHRs) and health information technology (HIT). He may have been trying to recover from a damning New York … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Brian Klepper, Health Care Cost, Health IT, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality, Reform | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Broader Approach To Managing Health Care Risk

Brian Klepper Posted 2/15/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care & Cost Blog Health care’s purchasers crave certainty. But complexity – and therefore uncertainty – rules. Assurances are hard to come by. The most common question asked by prospective clients of my onsite clinic/medical … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Benefits, Brian Klepper, Health Care Cost, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

The RUC, Health Care Finance’s Star Chamber, Remains Untouchable

Brian Klepper Posted 2/1/13 on The Health Affairs Blog On January 7, a federal appeals court rejected six Georgia primary care physicians’ (PCPs) challenge to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 20-year, sole-source relationship with the secretive, specialist-dominated federal advisory … Continue reading

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Posted in Brian Klepper, Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Market Dynamics, Physicians, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality, Reform | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Them, Not Us

Brian Klepper Posted 1/7/13 on Medscape Connect’s Care and Cost Blog “How many businesses do you know that want to cut their revenue in half? That’s why the healthcare system won’t change the healthcare system.” Rick Scott, Governor of Florida Former … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Benefits, Brian Klepper, Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Medical Management | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

An Archipelago of Health Information Islands

Brian Klepper Posted 12/27/12 on Medscape Connect’s Care and Cost Blog My wife Elaine was hospitalized for 6 days recently with an array of ailments related to her advancing cancer, so diagnosing and addressing her problems required a multidisciplinary approach. In addition … Continue reading

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Posted in Conflicts of Interest, Health Care Cost, Health IT, Policy/Law/Regulation, Politics, Quality | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Putting Physician Practices Into Context

Brian Klepper  Posted 12/11/12 on Medscape Connect’s Care & Cost Blog  An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.  Jack Welch Physicians and medical societies in all specialties would do well to take … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Health Care Cost, Health IT, Market Dynamics, Medical Management, Physicians, Quality | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

When Employers Collaborate To Manage Health Care Costs

Brian Klepper Published 12/09/12 in the Eau Claire, WI Leader-Telegram Note from Brian: This piece appeared last weekend in the Eau Claire, WI newspaper, and was written with the encouragement of employers in that community who, rightly, believe they’ve been … Continue reading

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Posted in Analytics, Benefits, Health Care Cost, Innovation, Medical Management | Tagged , , | Leave a comment