Monday Musings

The Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker has released its latest report on the rise in employee premiums and cost sharing for employees with large employer coverage.

For most of those with employer coverage, the cost of the premium is split between the employer and employee. Looking only at the health spending for which workers are responsible (their families’ premium contributions and cost-sharing payments), the average family spent $4,706 on premiums and $3,020 on cost-sharing, for a combined cost of $7,726 in 2018. This represents an 18% increase in the health costs borne by employees and their families from five years earlier ($6,571 in 2013), outpacing the 8% increase in inflation and a 12% increase in workers’ wages over the same period.

Employee Benefit News discusses the use of employer incentives to encourage their employees to price shop for healthcare services.  "These programs [such as Direct Path and Health Joy] both educate employees about the fact that they should price shop for many healthcare services, and encourage them to choose lower-cost options by putting money back in their pockets."

Fortune's Brain Storm newsletters discusses the healthcare companies that landed on the magazine's annual Change the World list. Check it out.

The FEHBlog was bowled over when he read in Modern Healthcare that only this week the federal Environmental Protection Agency is "prohibiting healthcare organizations from flushing hazardous waste pharmaceuticals [like opioids] into the sewer system." Apparently there are healthcare organizations who must come into compliance with this rule. That's nuts.