Telemedicine or telehealth has the potential to bring quality health care resources to patients in an efficient manner, but like many health care innovations, has gotten off to a slower start that many predicted. A Commonwealth Fund report on remote patient monitoring describes lessons from early adopters.
The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System issued a report called “Confronting Costs, Stabilizing U.S. Health Spending While Moving Toward a High Performance Health Care System”, which just about says it all!
Many large employers may consider shifting more employees to part-time status as a result of the implementation of the reform law, according to a survey by ADP, and they may take other actions to minimize their costs under the law.
Most people want to die at home, but few do. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association examines changes in place of death and use of hospice care over the last decade for Medicare beneficiaries.
Like many large industries, health care has a lot of transactional activity–mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, buy-outs, etc. These are usually predicated on the creation of significant benefits for the surviving entity. A Deloitte paper looks at whether such deals in the health plan sector have delivered the promised value.
A study in the American Journal of Managed Care looks at the effect on hospital utilization for patients who were care for in one of the country’s leading concierge practices.
A study from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary looks at characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries who disenroll from Medicare Advantage and their spending patterns following disenrollment.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published an issue largely devoted to studies of hospital readmissions, looking both at patterns and potential causes and programs that might help reduce preventable readmissions.
A new report from America’s Health Insurance Plans exposes the unbelievable ripoff charges that many providers place on out-of-network services. Much of these charges is paid by the insured person. Where are the regulators now!!
A draft working paper from the Federal Reserve Staff is the latest salvo in the ongoing exploration of any link between more health spending and better quality or vice versa. The paper suggests that geographic variation in spending is not likely highly correlated with quality.
Actuarial consultants Alvarez & Marsal issue a brief summarizing increasing issues with cost increases caused by hospital acquisition of physician practices and other outpatient services.
One primary purpose of quality reporting is to help consumers make informed decisions about where they get their care from or where they purchase insurance. Research in JAMA indicates there is a positive connection between CMS’ star ratings and beneficiary enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans.
The latest Pew Research survey relating to health care asks about how people track health matters and finds that relatively few use technology, even though easily available, for this purpose.
What is mHealth? And what impact will it have on health care? A new Deloitte Center for Health Solutions report attempts to provide answers and suggests that mHealth is transforming health care for the good. We’ll see.
The relationship between cost and quality is tricky in health care, as it is with many services and products. A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine conducts a meta-review of the research on the issue, finding very mixed and inconclusive results.
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 [email protected].
© 2024 Healthy Skeptic.
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