costs

An Insurance Bureaucrat Speaks Out

Dr. Don Thieman’s been inside the health insurance industry and he’s not remaining silent
December 3, 2009 -- A former medical director at Regence Bluecross Blueshield of Oregon says people have nothing to fear. By and large those in government have our interests at heart much more than people in the insurance industry. Read More >>

Drug-Makers Pay-for-Delay Schemes Cost Consumers

Paying competitors to delay generic drug production keeps people paying higher prices
December 3, 2009 -- Over the last few years, drug-makers have embraced a startlingly simple tactic for fending off competition from generic brands: paying them off. Read More >>

Regulators Offer Little Backstop for Premium Hikes

High paid executives and skyrocketing premiums from coast to coast
November 19, 2009 -- New information from a Senate investigation reveals CIGNA, one of the country's largest health insurers, failed to account for $5 billion in premium revenue reported to state regulators. Read More >>

Salem Hospital Faces $9 Million in Cuts, Pays High-Priced Consultants

The hospital’s home health agency might be closed or sold
November 12, 2009 -- When Norman Gruber, CEO of Salem Hospital, sent his staff a memo announcing cutbacks of $9 million next year, he might have unleashed a hailstorm. Read More >>

Controlling Costs Rests on Hospitals

Oregon hospitals made more than $325 million in profit last year, down from 2007
November 4, 2009 -- With health reform dominating the headlines, everyone’s poised on keeping costs under control. Dr. Chuck Kilo, CEO of Greenfield Health, knows one of the major culprits -- non-profit hospitals in Oregon. They’re making significant amounts of money, and are extremely profitable. Read More >>

Market Won't Solve Healthcare Without Public Option

Conservatives love market solutions, but healthcare has no hope of ever being an “efficient market." Here's why.
September 8, 2009 -- The September issue of The Atlantic has a feature article by David Goldhill, a business executive who lost his father due to a hospital error. Goldhill’s analysis of what’s wrong with the quality of our healthcare is impeccable, but not his solution. Read More >>

Healthcare Charges Under the Knife

As healthcare reform swirls around who pays and not what they pay, health insurers point fingers at medical providers for charging exorbitant prices that few know are negotiable.
Originally at Miller-McCune.com
August 28, 2009 -- If you paid sticker price on the last new car you bought, you might expect to pay about 15 percent more than you would with some negotiating. If you paid full price on a recent knee surgery, you could pay 500 percent more than market rate. And who knew you could even negotiate? Read More >>

Would You Rather Shop for a Car or a Doctor?

Fears are perfectly warranted, but not the ones you've been hearing most about lately
The Lund Report
August 20, 2009 -- Consumers of healthcare, also known as patients, are a pretty interesting bunch. And since virtually all of us are patients at one time or another, this is about all of us. Perhaps when dealing with an impossibly complicated and convoluted healthcare system we cannot help but behave in complicated and convoluted ways. Read More >>

Regence Sues Over Losing State Employee Contract

Regence refutes that Providence earns better marks
TheLundReport.org
July 31, 2009 -- Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon refuses to accept defeat. The insurance giant has filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon after losing a multi-million dollar contract to its competitor, Providence Health Plans. Read More >>

Oregon Takes Lead in Insurance Cost Scrutiny

Health insurers will soon have to report every administrative cost from furniture to moving expenses
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July 23, 2009 -- When Oregon regulators analyze insurance premiums next year, they’ll take a closer look at administrative costs than nearly any health insurance regulator in United States history. Read More >>
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