Category: Cost of Healthcare

One of the more interesting things the Affordable Care Act did to the private health insurance business was to tell health insurance companies that the Feds were now in control of their profit margins. What does that mean?

Imagine you are the CEO of your own health insurance company. In fact, let’s call it Your Own Health Insurance Company, or YOHIC for short! How do you think you would feel if YOHIC collected $1 billion in premiums over a year, but only had to pay out $500 million in healthcare costs? Sounds like YOHIC is doing really well, turning a 50% profit. Does YOHIC get to keep the rest of the premiums for its own payroll and profits?

Since 2010, the answer to that question is a resounding NO! Read more

It’s the eve of your 26th birthday, you must take your first steps into this alien world alone. For 25 years, you’ve lived in safety on the Mother Ship, er, your parents’ health insurance plan. PPOs, HMOs, cost shares and deductibles weren’t even on your radar.

What should you (or your kid who is turning 26) do? Healthcare Economist Mike Bertaut explains your options. Read more

Welcome to our first podcast in the age of COVID-19. In this podcast, Mike and his producer, Lindsey, talk about what has changed at Blue Cross (about 90% of our employees are working from home), along with how we’ve adjusted programs and services for our members. And, he talks about what hasn’t changed — our commitment to continue serving our customers.

Mike explains why it’s vital to continue seeking treatment for regular health concerns. Emergencies like heart attacks and appendicitis don’t stop in the face of a public health crisis, but more Americans are delaying care for them, at a great risk. Mike discusses how telehealth can help you figure out if and when you need to head to the hospital. Read more

As healthcare economist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, I figure my job looks pretty mundane to most people. Above all things, my job is studying, understanding, reporting and predicting, in that order.

I spend the vast majority of my time reading. Over the past 15 years, I’ve cultivated sources via journals, email blasts, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs that help me keep track of trends in healthcare and our economy, both here in Louisiana and nationally, if I think it has ramifications for our state.

The real key to my process is to quickly identify things that could affect all of us, and our healthcare in Louisiana. Read more

It’s hard to imagine a bigger financial disruption for our state’s businesses than we are seeing right now. Between federal and state orders to stay at home because of the COVID-19 health threat and a global glut of oil happening at the same time demand is dropping, leading to VERY low oil prices, nearly every sector of Louisiana’s economy is being beaten up pretty badly.

As a business owner, especially if you have a small business (which the federal Small Business Administration defines as a business with fewer than 500 employees), what can you possibly do to take care of your employees and keep your enterprise ongoing?
Read more

The changes we’ve all faced in the past few weeks have been really stressful. It’s important to me that we keep you all on top of what we are doing at Blue Cross to make sure the healthcare system, now so vital to our continued good health outcomes here in Louisiana, is strong and has the resources it needs.

Even before COVID-19, Blue Cross was paying for around $300 million a month in healthcare services for our members here in Louisiana. And with the current emergency around COVID-19, we could do even more. Here’s a few things that we have implemented to make it easier to protect your health. Read more