David Schleifer

PBGH Health Care Data Demonstration Project Gain powerful insights into real health care costs and quality. Download PBGH’s groundbreaking Health Care Data Project report today.

I am so excited to see this work coming to fruition! PBGH worked with 5 large employers to analyze #healthcare claims, price, and quality data and to identify opportunities for savings and higher-value care. Learn how employers are using these insights at buff.ly/kJqyNre #healthecon #healthpolicy

The policy was supposed to curb health care costs for patients. Now hospitals are suing Hospitals argue that spending caps imposed by an affordability office will result in layoffs, cuts in health care services and reduced access to care for Californians.

California #hospitals are suing over the state’s efforts to curb #healthcare spending buff.ly/Z74OCkR #healthecon #healthpolicy

PBGH launches data project arming employers with accurate pricing information The Purchaser Business Group on Health is launching a massive data project that aims to make it easier for employers to get their arms around what they're actually paying for healthcare. | The…

Very excited to see this coverage in Fierce Healthcare of PBGH's massive data project, which aims to make it easier for #employers to get their arms around what they're actually paying for #healthcare buff.ly/NmZXDkA #healthpolicy #healthecon

Cigna to pay $5.7M to settle 'ghost network' lawsuit over inaccurate provider lists The plaintiffs alleged that the insurer misled members with lists of in-network providers that turned out to be unreachable, out-of-network or non-existent.

Cigna to pay $5.7M to settle 'ghost network' lawsuit over inaccurate provider lists buff.ly/dA3vdmi #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon #healthinsurance

UnitedHealth paid AARP $9 billion to sell branded health coverage The disclosure sheds more light on a partnership dating to the 1990s.

AARP received $9 billion in royalties from UnitedHealthcare last year as part of an agreement to continue selling AARP-branded #Medicare products, part of a partnership dating to the 1990s, via @axios.com buff.ly/GpwSTaM #healthcare #healthpolicy

Updated Schema & Enforcement Date for Payers, 5 months to Comply The government might’ve shut down but price transparency lives on

CMS just released an updated schema for the Transparency in Coverage (TiC) files. These are massive files that #healthcare payers are required to publish listing all of the insurers' negotiated rates with hospitals, physician groups, and other providers buff.ly/Befaptd #healthinsurance #healthpolicy

Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Program Spent Twice as Much on Administrative Costs as on Health Care, GAO Says Republican lawmakers cite Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage as a national model for federal Medicaid work requirements that are set to take effect in 2027. A new report shows the program has spent at lea...

Reminder from @propublica.org that some people are more interested in punishing and having power over other people than they are in damn near anything else they claim to care about.

"Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Program Spent Twice as Much on Administrative Costs as on Health Care, GAO Says"

PBGH Webinar—Are We There Yet? PBGH Webinar—Are We There Yet? Making Transparency Work for Purchasers and Patients, September 24 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PT

I'm very excited for tomorrow's webinar sharing insights from previously inaccessible data about health insurers' prices, alongside insights about #healthcare quality buff.ly/ylEQN45 #healthpolicy #healthecon

Survey of employers find many neglect even basic fiduciary obligations as #healthcare purchasers, which may explain their poor performance in controlling costs and ensuring quality pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40916515/ #healthpolicy #healthecon #erisa

Pulse of the Purchaser 2025 Survey Results | National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions Learn more about the Pulse of the Purchaser 2024 study findings.

New survey of employers who are involved in the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions finds that those with more complete access to their #healthcare claims data are more likely to use direct contracting, centers of excellence, reference pricing, and tiered networks buff.ly/gJc58Wj

PBGH Webinar—Are We There Yet? PBGH Webinar—Are We There Yet? Making Transparency Work for Purchasers and Patients, September 24 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PT

Interested in learning how employers are using #healthcare price and quality data to make smarter purchasing decisions? Join PBGH & the Peterson Center on Healthcare on Sept 24 at 12:30ET to hear from PBGH employer-members Boeing, Qualcomm, and the City and County of Denver

📌 Spotlight on September's #LipidoftheMonth could be a biomarker for one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases of aging👃
lipidmaps.org/updates/lipi...

Apprenticeships and College Aren’t in Competition - Public Agenda In mid August, the U.S. Department of Labor shared a graphic encouraging young Americans to seek out apprenticeships in the trades sector. The infographic claims that earnings for apprenticeships are…

Are earnings for apprenticeships really higher than earnings from college degrees? According to new analysis from @publicagenda.bsky.social, the idea that apprenticeship programs offer higher earnings than college degrees is misleading buff.ly/BDwPGE3 #highereducation #workforce

Report: Healthcare costs could vary greatly depending on the health plan Trillium Health pored over CMS data and found great variation in what patients pay for care, depending on their insurer.

Trillium Health analysis found #hospitals accept different prices from different payers for the same procedure. E.g. Tufts Medical Center charges Aetna $95,989 for coronary bypass involving major complications or comorbidities & charges United $144,204 buff.ly/CG5obGU #healthcare #healthpolicy

The Surgeon Who Took On UnitedHealth Now Pays the Price Dr. Elisabeth Potter’s viral stand against America’s largest health insurer has left her clinic financially reeling.

Enterprising state legislators should be pushing bills that protect doctors and other clinicians against retaliation when they call out insurance company abuses. It's the right thing to do, and it's a good issue.

open.substack.com/pub/healthca...

@academyhealth.bsky.social & co-plaintiffs announced today that the HHS has agreed to restore federal webpages removed from NIH, CDC, and FDA sites earlier this year
bit.ly/463UVO8 #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

Network Inadequacy and Administrative Complexity: Searching for in-network mental health care or diabetes care with marketplace insurance - Public Agenda 9.7.23 Subscribe How difficult is it for people with marketplace insurance to find in-network health care providers, and how do delays and challenges in accessing care affect people’s lives? This…

Check out research from @publicagenda.bsky.social on how difficult is it for people with to find in-network mental #healthcare providers and how delays and challenges in accessing care affect people’s lives buff.ly/lEpqtnh #healthcare #healthpolicy #networkadequacy

Insurance carrier to repay patients, fix provider directory in NY settlement The state imposed a $250,000 penalty on MVP Health and asked it to provide restitution for enrollees hurt by inaccurate directory entries.

"New York state officials have negotiated a corrective action plan agreement with... MVP Health Plan after having trouble finding any mental health care providers in the plan's directory who were accepting new patients." #healthcare #healthpolicy #networkadequacy
buff.ly/jRA4pe4

For the first time in its history, Health Datapalooza will proceed without federal officials on the main stage, via @academyhealth.bsky.social buff.ly/cZu3vwD #healthpolicy #healthcare

The Typical American College Student Is Not Who You Think As a fight over the future of elite higher education consumes university leaders and politicians, most college students live in a very different world with very different challenges.

Only 16 percent of college students live on campus. 25 percent live with their parents.

20 percent of all undergraduate college students are parents. 9% are single moms buff.ly/5R3VdoZ

43% of college students are community college students buff.ly/5R3VdoZ

The Typical American College Student Is Not Who You Think As a fight over the future of elite higher education consumes university leaders and politicians, most college students live in a very different world with very different challenges.

Those of us who went to a selective college for four years on a leafy campus are the outliers, not the norm

92% of SMBs say policymakers aren’t doing enough on health benefits Even more agreed that policymakers should come up with a new way for them to offer health benefits.

Medicaid, Medicare and individual coverage sold through ACA exchanges dominate #healthcare policy conversations today. But in a survey of small and medium business owners, only 12% said they were confident that they would still be able to offer #healthinsurance coverage in 3 years buff.ly/2pjODoA

The National Suicide Hotline For LGBTQ+ Youth Went Dead. States Are Scrambling To Help. - KFF Health News LGBTQ+ youth lost dedicated support on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in July at a critical time. Advocates say mental health issues are rising in that population amid hostility from the Trump…

The National Suicide Hotline For LGBTQ+ Youth Went Dead. States Are Scrambling To Help, via @kffhealthnews.org buff.ly/cwlXGtE?

Republicans and Democrats must agree: Americans deserve price transparency in health care Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican and M.D., explains why he and Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper came together to sponsor health care transparency legislation.

"With upfront prices, employers and unions can design a benefit where workers get the best quality, lowest price care, and share savings in the form of reduced premiums and higher wages," via Senator Robert Marshall in @statnews.com buff.ly/SN6flYN #healthcare #healthpolicy #healthecon

Many employers neglect basic fiduciary obligations to their employees, which may explain the poor performance #healthcare plans in controlling costs & providing access care, suggesting many employers may be vulnerable to ERISA lawsuits buff.ly/p3IXWcY #healthinsurance #healthpolicy #healthecon

Many employer health plans, fidcuaries are easy targets for ERISA suits, researchers warn Barak Richman's team found that 33% of plan sponsors do not even ask for coverage offers from multiple contractors.

According to a new survey, many U.S. employers have failed to take even basic steps to perform the duties expected of health plan fiduciaries, or even to try to save themselves some money buff.ly/pEkLUwF #healthcare #healthecon #healthpolicy

Elevance loses lawsuit over Medicare Advantage quality ratings A federal judge rejected Elevance's argument that the government unfair lowered its ratings.

I love that this legal decision turns at least in part on a dispute about whether 3.749565 should be rounded down to 3.5 or up to 4.

2025 Health Plan Price Transparency | Research Report Trilliant Health's report on health plan price transparency examines the actual negotiated rates for healthcare services across the U.S.

Trilliant Health study using transparency in coverage data shows different payers negotiate different rates for the same procedure at the same #hospital. E.g. Aetna's rate for coronary bypass at Tufts is $95,989. UHC's rate is $144,204 at the same hospital buff.ly/V5wfT76 #healthcare #healthecon