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		<title>Health-benefit costs rise</title>
		<description>Discuss Health-benefit costs rise</description>
		<link>http://www.oregonbusiness.com/the-latest/5950-health-benefit-costs-rise?device=iphone</link>
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			<title>Rising Costs Don't Go to the Doctors</title>
			<link>http://www.oregonbusiness.com/the-latest/5950-health-benefit-costs-rise?device=iphone#comment-1824</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Increased costs are a result of many factors, among them the lack of "across state lines" competition, mandates, regulations and litigation. It would be nice if the increased expenses for medical insurance meant that doctors, nurses and hospitals were being paid more but it does not. Having been in healthcare finance since l988 I have seen doctors' reimbursements decline year after year. Procedures are being paid at less than 50% of the rates paid in the l980s when the RBRVS system and the Medicare "overpriced procedure" rules decreased reimbursement substantially. Unfortunately for doctors the costs of doing business have also increased squeezing them from both sides. Obamacare is a significant cause of these increases. Aside from thousands of pages of written prose, there are many thousands more pages of unwritten regulations that create uncertainty. Uncertainty in any endeavor increases costs. The various mandates also increase costs for everyone. If you offer "free" anything to one group, it means others are paying. I hope someone with healthcare finance knowledge has some influence over future legislation or we can count on costs rising and access declining.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Lisa</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:30:06 +0000</pubDate>
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			<title>Rising costs a misnomer</title>
			<link>http://www.oregonbusiness.com/the-latest/5950-health-benefit-costs-rise?device=iphone#comment-1821</link>
			<description><![CDATA[It is a mistake to attribute the constant increases in health insurance premiums to "rising health care costs." It is more accurate to attribute them to rising "insurance company costs" in which insurers take a significant percentage of every health care dollar to pay their top management huge salaries and bonuses.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>L Moore</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:42:56 +0000</pubDate>
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