First up was a study on changes in practice patterns after Medicare began reimbursing for an AI-assisted cardiac disease diagnostic tool. Use of this tool reduced invasive cardiac testing, but raised overall spending on diagnostics. It did not appear to result in earlier diagnosis of cardiac diseases, but there was a decrease in cardiac related adverse events. Be interesting to follow the research as AI increasingly rolls into medicine.
Most family physicians end up practicing in the state where they were trained. Another study finds high rates of burnout among primary care physicians in the US, compared to other countries. Reimbursement, patient load pressures, administrative garbage, all play a role. When private equity firms buy physician practices, more doctors are hired, but there is also more turnover, especially among nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Staffing mandates in nursing homes raise costs and revenues. Unionizing nursing home staff increases use of cheaper LPNs and decreases use of RNs, with no apparent impact on quality.
As Medicare Advantage plans grow rapidly, more enrollees are leaving within three months of signing up, at this point over 10% of new enrollees. That suggests a failure to understand the nature of an MA plan. Changes to the MA plan reimbursement formula that reduced payments to plans did not appear to result in significant reductions in benefits.
This is pretty interesting, Medicare beneficiaries who live in rural areas and who had surgery would apparently be better off to use the hospital closed to them. They often go to larger hospitals farther away, but the beneficiaries who did this had worse outcomes.
The introduction of generic inhalers for asthma and COPD was associated with lower brand-name inhaler prices. Doh!! (HA Issue)
Interesting about the better outcomes in hospitals nearer to the patient. I am thinking this may be the result of the outreach surgeons being older and more experienced???