The Catch: Workers Feel Trapped

SEE THE DOCTOR? THAT’LL BE THE DAY

Bob Turner, head of Turner Investments Partners Inc., Berwyn, Pa., an investment firm with $12 billion in assets under management, says consumers’ fear of health care costs could be bad for health care providers, such as for-profit hospital companies, and good for big health insurers, such as Aetna Inc., Hartford (NYSE:AET), and UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn. (NYSE:UNH).

“Lagging consumer confidence is inhibiting people from seeking the health care they need,” Turner writes in a new commentary. “Even though the unemployment rate has dropped to about 9%, down from its recent peak of 10.1%, our research shows that a lack of consumer confidence — as manifested in people’s worries about job security — is keeping patients from seeking treatment. Patients are putting off doctor’s visits, drug prescriptions, surgeries, and other medical procedures until they perceive that a more stable job market in particular and more stable economic conditions in general prevail….We call this The New Abnormal for the health-care sector in the near term.”

Turner cites reports indicating the volume of patient visits to doctors’ offices is down 8% from a year ago and that a hospital’s surgical admission volume fell 1.4% during the third quarter.

FORMER EXCHANGE CZAR GETS NEW JOB

Joel Ario, the former director of the Office of Health Insurance Exchanges at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is now managing director of Manatt Health Solutions, Washington, an arm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips L.L.P.

Manatt is known as a law firm with strong ties to the Democratic Party.

Ario, a former Pennsylvania insurance commissioner and former Oregon insurance administrator, served on the executive committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) from 2001 to 2010.

He has a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in divinity from Harvard University, and a law degree from Harvard.