This week’s AMA News reports that

HealthPocket, a website that ranks and compares health plans, asked 713 consumers if they would be willing to change physicians if it meant saving money on insurance premiums. Respondents also were asked how much money they would need to save annually to make that switch. Thirty-four percent thought keeping down out-of-pocket insurance costs was more important than retaining their doctors.

In addition, the savings wouldn’t have to be that significant — more than half of those willing to make a switch “would do so for the lowest savings amount presented by the survey, $500 to $1,000 annually,” according to a summary of the findings. This compares to the 7.5% who would change doctors only if they saved $3,000 or more per year.

Fascinating. Here’s a link to the HealthPocket survey.

Health Data Management reports that several large health insurers are requiring their business associates to implement the HITRUST Common Security Framework.  Standardization makes sense.

Fierce Healthcare reports that “A new survey from the American Hospital Association finds that most hospitals are implementing team-based care–nearly 75 percent, with 62 percent training to do so.” That’s good news.

The benefits consulting firm Towers Watson wrote about a May 3 Internal Revenue Service proposed rule that provides more guidance about the ACA’s requirement that employer sponsored plans offer “minimum value” in 2014.  The FEHBlog is willing to bet the ranch that FEHB plans meet this standard which basically requires that the enrollee cost sharing (deductibles, co-payments, coinsurance but not enrollee contributions) does not exceed 40% of standardized plan costs.  Woo boy, is the ACA a complicated law.