Jan 31, 2019 | Commentary
Everybody seems to agree that “big data” holds much promise (or potential) for better healthcare. To this end, the Affordable Care Act made it a priority to create more, and presumably, better health care data. However, with the rapid development of devices, tracking systems and data tools, who will benefit from this data: Patients? Plan sponsors (or payers)? Insurance companies? Healthcare providers? PBMs? Pharmaceutical and device manufacturers? Other enterprising service providers? (more…)
Jan 30, 2019 | Keeping Score
Overall trend looks at medical and prescription drug costs (claims and administration expenses) combined on a per employee basis year-over-year. While the average is somewhat expected, the 27% difference from highest to lowest illustrates that trend is not as linear as we might often think. Knowing your trend rate is essential, but more importantly, knowing if you are trending to the mean of per employee per year cost benchmarks or further away is critical to managing your plan.
How does your plan compare? Let us know if you would like to gain more insight into how to measure and manage your plan trend.
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