Managed care positioned to take advantage of Affordable Care Act, analyst says
The U.S. stock market has been moving sideways and seemed stuck in a rut in the 4th quarter of 2011. But that may soon change, for managed care companies at least, as they continue to report end-of-quarter earnings, according to CNBC.
UnitedHealth, the parents company of United Behavioral Health, logged membership gains last year. But an analyst for Wells Fargo says both companies are poised to take maximum advantage of falling unemployment in 2012 and the Affordable Health Care Act.
“Aetna and UnitedHealth are attempting to become leaders in ‘accountable care organizations.’ They were part of Obama’s health-care reform — and the idea is for providers to form narrow networks and create shared systems offering lower-priced products and services,” says Peter Costa, Wells Fargo senior equity analyst.
The private health-care industry is “migrating toward these structures,” he says.
Costa also notes that “enrollment for insurers is a function of the employed market. The more people are employed, the more members are paying premiums for health insurers.”
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Binge eating disorder is back on the slate again for inclusion in the new DSM-5, due out early next year. It was discussed in the DSM-IV but didn’t make it as an official diagnosis.
Now, Psychiatric News reports that due to “an explosion of research” on the problem it’s being proposed for inclusion as a disorder. The definition: Recurrent eating of “an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.”
Recommended treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressants.
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More than half of psychiatrists earned between $175,000 and $300,000 in 2011, according to a survey released by Psychiatric Times.
Here’s the breakdown: 27.5% made between $175,000 and $200,000; 25.9% made between $200,000 and $300,000; 14.2% made between $150,000 and $175,000; 10.9% made less than $100,000; 7.4% made more than $300,000; and 7.1% each made between $100,000 and $125,000 and $125,000 and $150,000.
Psychiatrists’ incomes were basically flat compared to 2010.