Deloitte Consulting and the American Medical Informatics Association released results from a survey on the state of informatics in health care. Much of the supposed improvements in health care quality…
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A Government Accounting Office report examines access to care for Medicaid beneficiaries, finding a continuing decline in provider willingness to serve these patients, largely due to inadequate reimbursement. With a…
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We want to wish all our loyal (and not so loyal!) readers a wonderful Thanksgiving. A recent poll suggested that many Americans feel that the relentless focus on the shopping aspects of holidays has spoiled their traditional meaning. We hope that you have an enjoyable day with family and friends, who give so much meaning to our lives. We can all be very grateful that we live in this country, with so many freedoms and still so much opportunity.
The Government Accounting Office examines trends in drug spending in Medicare Part B, which covers drugs administered in a doctor's office. Looking at the 55 most expensive Part B drugs,…
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Employee benefits consulting firm releases results from its latest survey of employers on health benefits. While spending growth has moderated in recent years, it continues at an above inflation and…
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An article in Nature describes a study of over 1000 individual genomes to identify variation. This is an important step in the continuing evolution of personalized medicine, which is proving…
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Thanks be given for our last Potpourri before Thanksgiving, a table spread with delectable bites of information on hospital readmissions and quality measure performance, health plan enrollment growth, health price…
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The "fiscal cliff" deficits, and debt are very much in the news these days. A Congressional Budget Office report indicates how much of our spending difficulty is attributable to health…
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A substantial amount of Medicare and overall health spending is incurred in the last few months of patients' lives. Much of this spending is due to intensive care that obviously…
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Everyone is concerned about health spending growth, the primary cause of which is unit price increases. So why are obvious methods to reduce unit price of services, like substituting less-expensive…
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Research reported in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that a hospital pay-for-performance program in part of England may have led to reduced mortality for three conditions, with pneumonia…
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Thank God the election is finally over, but our Potpourri is never-ending, this week bringing you the latest on why comparative effectiveness research results don't translate to practice, innovations to…
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A brief from the Urban Institute examines the premium support proposal to reform Medicare, suggesting instead that Medicare Advantage be changed. This ideologically driven report ignores basic economics and the…
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Another consultant's report on the American health system, this one from KPMG and focusing on the supposed transformation from a volume-based system to one founded on value. While leaders of…
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Another paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, this one examining consumer behavior in the context of the Medicare Part D exchange and finding that beneficiary inertia seems to…
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