With increasing frequency, Americans are purchasing health insurance plans that require high out-of-pocket costs. Chief among those costs are deductibles, the amount of money a person or family must spend out-of-pocket on medical care in a year before their health insurance “kicks in.” As this figure illustrates, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, deductibles have been…
Even before Obamacare became the law of the land, the U.S. health care system was undergoing a dramatic transformation. Millions of people were shifting from generous health insurance plans to consumer-directed ones that pair low monthly premiums with high out-of-pocket costs. This shift has been encouraged by employers, eager to reduce the cost of employee…
One of my favorite radio shows, Marketplace, did a story on our recent study, in which we showed that physicians sometimes miss out on opportunities to help patients lower their out-of-pocket expenses. The piece features a medical student who’s been working with me on this project, Wynn Hunter, who is making his first national public…
Every once in a while, I like to highlight outstanding writing in my blog. I guess that makes up for the writing otherwise expose you to – namely, my own. As I expect most of you know, there’s been a horrible situation in Flint, Michigan recently, with government negligence leading to lead poisoning in the…
Here is a Kaiser Health News/NPR story on our research on healthcare cost conversations in doctor’s offices. Talking about money is never easy. But when doctors are reluctant to talk about medical costs, patients’ health can be undermined. A study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs explores the opportunities that are often missed in the exam room. Patients…
Take 100 Americans who have used medical care this year, find the one who has receive the most medical care, and you have probably accounted for a fifth of all healthcare spending in that group. One person, 20% of spending – that is how skewed healthcare consumption is in this country. Here’s a picture, which…
If you are wondering why your hourly wage or your salary aren’t rising as quickly as you like, or why your bank account at the end of the year hasn’t grown as much as you intended, don’t forget to take into account just how much more you are probably paying out-of-pocket for the medical care…
Here is the beginning of my recent interview in Delta Sky Magazine where I discuss preparing business school students for future work in the healthcare industry. As a physician, how does your medical background shape the way you teach your business students? I’m an academic physician, so I’ve practiced medicine and have done research on…
Lena Wright’s best friend was hunched over like a character from a French novel, with spinal bones so thin they would fracture with a fit of sneezing. Determined to avoid that fate, Wright (a pseudonym) asked her primary care doctor to test her for osteoporosis with a DEXA scan, also known as Dual Energy X-ray…
Donna Rosato, an excellent journalist at CR, as the cool kids call it, just published an excellent article highlighting some of our research on money talk in the doctor’s office. Here is a teaser. A growing body of research has found that as people pay more out of pocket for their healthcare, they’re likely to put off treatment instead of seeking a…