...members, and revenue–$1.67 billion in 2020 and $1.04 billion in 2019–no simple feat against the Big 9. Oscar’s problem is profitability–operating losses grew proportionately, $402.3 million (+56% from $259.4 million). Operating expenses also grew by 16 percent. TechCrunch gives additional crunch in the financial analysis (article in part, full paid access). Mobihealthnews Oscar is one of a few health-tech heavy survivors of insurance companies that bloomed like flowers–and wilted–during and post-Obamacare. Clover Health, which thrived in a slice of the Medicare Advantage market, went the SPAC (blank check) route 8 January with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings. Now with an enterprise... Continue Reading
Search Results for obamacare
Roy Lilley’s tart-to-the-max view of The Topol Review on the digital future of the NHS
...the expense of what can and needs to be done now. Both Drs Topol and Emanuel, in this Editor’s view, have gaps in vision. A year later, I reviewed his article The Future of Medicine Is in Your Smartphone which came out at the time of ‘The Patient Is In.’ which was quite the succès d’estime among us health tech types. “The article is at once optimistic–yes, we love the picture–yet somewhat unreal.” It seemed to fly in the face of the 2015 reality of accelerating government control of medicine (Obamacare), of payments, outcomes-based medicine which is gated and can... Continue Reading
Soapbox: JPM’s Dimon takes the 50,000 foot view on the JP Morgan Chase-Berkshire Hathaway-Amazon health joint venture
...Among several, “Our nation’s healthcare costs are twice the amount per person compared with most developed nations.” Under point 2 on how poor public policy happened, an admission that Obamacare fixed little: Here’s another example: We all know that the U.S. healthcare system needs to be reformed. Many have advocated getting on the path to universal healthcare for all Americans. The creation of Obamacare, while a step in the right moral direction, was not well done. America has 290 million people who have insurance — 180 million through private enterprise and 110 million through Medicare and Medicaid. Obamacare slightly expanded... Continue Reading
Scary Monsters, Take 2: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase’s addressing employee healthcare
...varies by state, but in about half the US states there are licensing regulations either through departments of insurance or health. On the Federal level, there’s HHS, various Congressional committees, Commerce, and possibly DOJ. Large companies generally self-insure for healthcare. They use insurers as ASO–administrative services only–in order to lower costs. Which leads to…why didn’t these companies work directly with their insurers to redo health benefits? Why the cudgel and not the scalpel? Lest we forget, the Affordable Care Act (ACA, a/k/a Obamacare) mandated what insurance must cover–and it ballooned costs for companies because additional coverages were heaped upon the... Continue Reading
#HIMSS17 roundup: machine learning, Proteus, Soon-Shiong/NantWorks’ cancer vax, Uniphy Health, more
HIMSS17 is over for another year, but there is plenty of related reading left for anyone who is not still recovering from sensory overload. There wasn’t big news made, other than Speaker John Boehner trying to have it both ways about what the House needs to do about replacing the failing ACA a/k/a Obamacare. Here’s our serving: If you are interested in the diffusion of workflow technologies into healthcare, including machine learning and AI, there’s a long-form three-part series in Healthcare IT News that this Editor noted has suddenly become a little difficult to find–but we did. The articles also... Continue Reading
Action This Day in US healthcare, coming to pharma, insurance, home care and innovation
...reminder: the PPACA did not go into effect until 2010 and most of the provisions kicked in during 2011. Health tech law firm Epstein Becker Green trotted out its crystal ball right after the election and made a slew of predictions which are so hedged and Washington-like that the major points–the preservation of pre-existing condition coverage and protection for Medicaid state block grants–are a slog to get to. Health Affairs has published a series of articles more to the point on aspects of the transition from ‘Obamacare to Trumpcare’ (the latter a term studiously avoided by this Editor and the... Continue Reading
Breaking: Aetna-Humana merger blocked by Federal court
...merger, but the general consensus of reports is that it will be denied by Federal Judge Jackson soon. [TTA 19 Jan] Healthcare Dive, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Benzinga Of course, with a new President determined to immediately roll back the more onerous regulatory parts of the ACA, in one of his first Executive Orders directing that Federal agencies ease the “regulatory burdens” of ObamaCare on both patients (the mandatory coverage) and providers, the denial of these two mega-mergers in the 2009-2016 environment may be seen as a capital ‘dodging the bullet’ in a reconfigured–and far less giving to Big Payers–environment. FoxNews... Continue Reading
2016: will telehealth catch on or stagnate, due to factors out of control?
...that old FBQ* (actually the top two) continues to be as true now as five years ago. While in closing Mr Quashie puts his trust in the ‘pull’ factor of consumers and patients “who will continue to demand better access and more innovative delivery models outside the conventional office visit,” this Editor is far less sanguine, despite having used a virtual consult app recently. It was turned to more out of sheer frustration–time pressure (work, travel), being unable to secure a timely visit with a specialist (no one seems to be taking new patients!) despite good (non-Obamacare) medical coverage, and... Continue Reading
A ‘Game of Thrones’ analogy to potential health insurer mergers
The Wall Street Journal has likened the merger action pending among America’s largest insurers to the series ‘Game of Thrones’, said thrones occupied by Aetna, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare and Anthem. These more aptly remind this Editor of the final stages of airline deregulation, except that none are in a non-medieval bankruptcy court. Their actions reflects the payers’ urgent concerns that now is the time to reinforce a national presence, that revenues in a Obamacare environment (well, we’ll see the effect of that US Supreme Court subsidy decision due imminently) can do nothing but go down and that Medicare Advantage, commercial... Continue Reading
What can the US learn from the UK’s approach to healthcare?
The Guardian article recently published an article entitled “What the NHS can learn from the US Obamacare system” which disappointingly spends almost all of its text talking about the challenges of implementing Obamacare, and just a few sentences espousing three very weak lessons, the first of which is: …Obamacare had a clear overarching goal: reduce the number of uninsured. Who can stand up and make such a clear case for the Health and Social Care Act 2012? The rest are (go to DHACA website to read more)... Continue Reading
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