A new Dartmouth Atlas report focuses on variation in pediatric care.
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According to the Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative, 45% of employers either are or plan to utilize a private health insurance exchange and an additional 15% would send employees to the public exchanges for health benefits, but there is concern about the stability of these entities.
http://www.nebgh.org/resources/PEEC%20Executive%20Summary%20December%2010%202013%20FINAL.pdfHHS issued the rules designed to force health plans to cover people who haven't yet paid their premiums (and who may never do so) after enrolling through the exchanges, transferring the burden of the defective enrollment process from the government to the plans.
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/12/17/2013-29918/patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act-maximizing-january-1-2014-coverage-opportunitiesA great deal of health care expense is associated patients who are incapable of making decisions about their care. A New England Journal of Medicine perspective discusses how to handle…
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According to research published in the journal Healthcare, medical practices participating in the Physician Group Practice Demonstration, the forerunner of the ACO concept, had reduced cancer care costs of $721 per patient or 3.9% annually, all attributed to less inpatient care.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213076413000183The Physicians Foundation has identified five key areas affecting doctors in 2014, including monopolization by payers and health systems, regulatory burdens, confusion due to health reform, and HIT not fulfilling its promise.
http://www.physiciansfoundation.org/news/the-physicians-foundation-releases-2014-watch-listOne reason hospital prices may rise is that the cost of supplies and equipment that they use can go up rapidly. The Modern Healthcare/ECRI Institute Technology Price Index finds for example that the average cost of surgical tables, a mundane item, is up about 16% in the last year.
https://www.ecri.org/Pages/PriceIndex.aspxA study in the American Journal of Managed Care finds that electronic prescribing grew from 30% in 2007 to 56% in 2010, with primary care doctors being more likely to engage in it than specialists and urban doctors more frequent users than rural ones.
http://www.ajmc.com/publications/ajpb/2013/ajpb_novdec2013/Electronic-Prescription-Use-by-Specialty?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=AJMC&utm_campaign=AJPB+Web+12%2D13%2D13A Kaiser Family Foundation brief finds that Medicare patients continue to have generally good access to physicians.
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Use of hospitalists appears to be associated with lower hospital readmissions, according to a study in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/study-hospitalist-presence-associated-with-reduced-readmissions.html?utm_source=H2RMinutes+PCMH+Dec.+10%2C+2013&utm_campaign=PCMH-AC+Minutes+12%2F10%2F13+&utm_medium=emailAbout this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
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