This column originally appeared on HR Dive. Autumn is upon us. The air is cooler. The leaves are changing colors. Pumpkin versions of all of your favorite foods are in supermarkets. And for thousands of benefits administrators, it’s open enrollment season — the annual workplace ritual in which millions of employees select their 2018 health … Continue Reading
Author Archives
shandonfowler
Rethinking the Employer/Payer Relationship
This column originally appeared on HR Dive. In his New York Times column on the roots of employer-based health insurance in the United States (a quick, essential read), researcher and pediatrician Aaron E. Carroll notes how competition for workers during WWII was the impetus for the modern-day employer-based system. Fearing a wage battle in a very tight … Continue Reading
Morning Consult: Five Opportunities for Bipartisanship in Health Care Policy
This op-ed for Morning Consult is part of an ongoing collaboration with George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on strategic health care topics, especially those pertaining to the individual, ACA-subsidized health insurance market and part-time workforces. Nearly a decade since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the heated vitriol surrounding health care policy issues has only … Continue Reading
Employee Benefit Adviser: Amazon’s PillPack deal a warning shot for PBMs
Amazon’s PillPack deal is continuing to make waves across the health insurance industry. From former pharmacists questioning the quality of patient care Amazon will deliver to determining what level of importance Atul Gawande will set the prescription drug acquisition as the head of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan & Chase healthcare venture, this has been important news for the American … Continue Reading
Employee Benefit Adviser: Part-Time workers may be the key to ACA exchange rebirth
“This seems to be driven more by the employers than their broker consultants,” Fowler says. “They want to offer these plans to their part-time workers, but they need the broker to figure out how they can do it.” Read the full story…
HR Dive: Healthcare world watches as Amazon makes moves
The rapidity with which Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase have entered the healthcare industry is in part a response to frustrations — held by both employers and the general public — about inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system, sources previously told HR Dive. “Affordability is the issue,” Shandon Fowler, an analyst and principal of … Continue Reading
Employee Benefit Adviser: Is the Amazon purchase a bitter pill for brokers? Healthcare experts weigh in
Comments from Shandon Fowler: “It’s a very practical purchase in keeping with Amazon’s laser focus on customer needs. Having personalized prescriptions may lead to both healthier and more cost-effective outcomes for individuals, which is Amazon’s stock and trade. “It also appears to follow a pattern of recent moves showing a strong commitment to all demographic … Continue Reading
Top Three Takeaways from Atul Gawande’s Views on his Role as CEO of the ABC Venture
This article was originally published with co-author George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on LinkedIn. If there was any doubt that the partnership between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase (ABC) on health care would be serious about both system reform and putting the individual at the center of employer-based health care, it was largely dispelled … Continue Reading
RealClear Health: Health Care Transparency Deserves a Serious Bipartisan Effort
This op-ed for RealClear Health is part of an ongoing collaboration with George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on strategic health care topics, especially those pertaining to the individual, ACA-subsidized health insurance market and part-time workforces. Members of Congress are signaling rare bipartisanship in their support for crucial updates to health savings accounts (HSAs) — a key casualty of … Continue Reading
The Hill: Let’s turn bad news on health coverage into a path toward change
This op-ed for The Hill is part of an ongoing collaboration with George Kalogeropoulos, CEO of HealthSherpa, on strategic health care topics, especially those pertaining to the individual, ACA-subsidized health insurance market and part-time workforces. Quoting British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Mark Twain famously said “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” … Continue Reading