An astoundingly small number of patients account for a very high percentage of overall national health expenditures and an equally astounding large number of patients account for a very small amount of that spending. A new brief from AHRQ gives details.
When money starts getting attached to calculations, the nitty-gritty of how the data for the calculations is collected and how the calculation is defined become very important. An article in the Annals of Internal Medicine examines methods for determining hospital mortality rates, finding differences across methods that could have important financial consequences.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute provides a quick look at two interesting topics. The new reform law requires that employer health plans provide coverage for adult children up to the age of 26. Early evidence suggests that the number of uninsured adults in the 19-25 age group has declined. Older Americans are also found to often make changes in health spending in response to financial distress.
Our latest Potpourri reveals details about causes of workplace injuries, the effect of raising the Medicare eligibility age, benefit levels in existing health policies, false claims prosecutions and off-label drug use, ICU staff perceptions of the appropriateness of care, and malpractice liability from clinical decision support systems.
The official report on national health spending for 2010 has been finalized by the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The increase over 2009 was quite low, driven mostly by reductions in utilization as individuals had to pay out-of-pocket for care.
Research in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that Medicare Advantage health plans use offering of certain non-required benefits, like fitness club memberships, to attract and retain healthier beneficiaries, thereby supposedly boosting their profits. The article is a weak-design piece of ideological hogwash.
A new report from Magellan subsidiary iCore provides information on trends in specialty drugs covered under a plan’s medical benefit, indicating that these compounds’ use and cost continues to rise rapidly, providing strong challenges for payers, who often lack good data and tools to manage this pharmaceutical category.
A report from the Urban Institute projects what savings might be available from greater use of intensive care management for persons with serious, multiple chronic diseases.
Welcome to 2012, when you can once again expect a series of high-quality Potpourris from our immense data bank! Our initial foray includes the Independence at Home CMS demo, discharge summaries and hospital readmissions, CMS’ quality measures for Medicaid patients, private equity fundraising, medical homes and cost savings for Medicaid patients and the effect of poor discharge summaries on nursing home patients.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality examines the supposed mechanisms by which public reporting of provider performance on quality measures will improve outcomes and details the evidence which supports or fails to support that theory.
We appear to be in the midst of a hiatus in rapid health spending growth and health price inflation, a view reinforced by two recent reports from the Altarum Institute. Declines in per capita utilization may be the major cause, which might be a concern if needed care is being delayed.
A draft evidence report from AHRQ looks at end-of-life and hospice care. End-of-life care is often fingered as one of the causes of increasing health spending. The report finds moderate evidence supporting beneficial effects from many of the studied interventions.
Our final commentary of 2011 reflects on developments in health care for the year. Notably, support for the health reform law continues to be weak and health care cost growth continues to outpace both GDP and inflation.
One reason given for the need for the reform law was the growth in health insurance costs, although it is yet unclear whether the law reduces or increases those costs in the long run. A Commonwealth Fund brief looks at state-by-state trends in premiums and consumer costs.
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.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Overcast
PocketCasts
Radio Public
Stitcher
Anchor
RSS - Posts