New York Times Article on Reference Pricing

The New York Times has published a story on the efforts underway by employers to include reference pricing in plan designs.  The story, which has a generally favorable view on the concept, describes reference pricing and mentions a few examples of reference pricing programs in place, including CalPERS.  Both cost AND quality are discussed as important factors when designing and implementing reference pricing programs.

The Smokers’ Surcharge

More and more employers are demanding that workers who smoke, are overweight or have high cholesterol shoulder a greater share of their health care costs, a shift toward penalizing employees with unhealthy lifestyles rather than rewarding good habits.

Policies that impose financial penalties on employees have doubled in the last two years to 19 percent of 248 major American employers recently surveyed. Next year, Towers Watson, the benefits consultant that conducted the survey, said the practice — among employers with at least 1,000 workers — was expected to double again. Read the full article...

Report Finds Improved Performance by Hospitals

“It’s only highlighting the best performers and they should be highlighting the poorest performers because evidence shows that when you publicly report, it’s the poorest performers that improve the most. And the public wants to know which are the poorest performing hospitals so they can avoid them.”
-- Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumer Union’s Safe Patient Project

In the latest advance for health care accountability, the country’s leading hospital accreditation board, the Joint Commission, released a list on Tuesday of 405 medical centers that have been the most diligent in following protocols to treat conditions like heart attack and pneumonia. Almost without exception, most highly regarded hospitals in the United States, from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., did not make the list. Read the full article...

Justices Are Asked to Hear Challenge to Health Care Law

The Supreme Court was asked on Wednesday to hear a challenge to the health care overhaul law, raising the possibility that the justices could rule on the matter by next summer, just months before the presidential election. Similar requests are likely to follow, and it is not clear which if any of them the court will agree to hear. Read the full article...