In my lifetime, I have been blessed to see advances in medical science that literally saved my life.

In 1983, at 22 years old, I was diagnosed with a malignant form of bone cancer in my right femur. Cancer was, of course, much more of a deadly condition back then. I qualified for a clinical trial with four other male subjects who were about my age and had the same condition. I was given a brand-new chemotherapy combination in a brand-new delivery method, and within three months, 80% of my tumor was dead or inactive. Read more

Way back in 2009, when lawmakers were negotiating the Affordable Care Act, it was clear that it would cost a lot of money to pay out advanced tax credits, cost-sharing reductions and Medicaid fees for millions of newly covered people. So much money that the authors of the ACA were concerned enough to try and make the ACA revenue neutral.

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Often, when we write here at Straight Talk about how fast innovation and technology move in healthcare, we are talking in grand, sweeping terms about multi-billion dollar investments and really earth-shattering inventions.

It turns out REALLY important healthcare innovation work can be done on a local level, and it’s something we can all use and be proud of. Read more

Today, we are starting a new, occasional series on Straight Talk. I’m going to introduce you to some remarkable people here at Blue Cross, letting you get to know how they think and how they are leading Blue Cross in solving problems and developing innovations for the health insurance industry. Read more

From our last discussion on why prescription drugs cost so much, you might remember we introduced this graph:

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The only thing worse than bad news is bad news you never saw coming. It happens in healthcare with balance, or surprise, billing. Also known as a pain in the rear. In this video (3:59), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana healthcare economist Mike Bertaut explains what balance billing is and how you can avoid it. Read more