End-of-life care accounts for a large fraction of health spending. Often decisions regarding such care are made by surrogates and new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest…
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As ObamaCare meets judgment at the Supreme Court, evidence about the effect of its predecessor in Massachusetts continues to be amassed. A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic…
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A new report from the Commonwealth Fund tracks performance of local health care systems across the United States, finding as much as a two to three times variation across the…
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Spring is in the air but take a few minutes to refresh with our latest Potpourri, which includes the Congressional Budget Office's latest health reform projections, ER use by those…
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A review article in the American Journal of Managed Care summarizes the evidence to date on medical homes. The results look modestly promising, with evidence of improving quality of care,…
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A crucial question in the next few years is what will happen with employer-sponsored health care coverage in the wake of the reform law's full implementation. A new survey from…
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We would all like to believe that spending more on health care means we would have better outcomes and healthier people. Most research on the topic to date has suggested…
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Can all the public reporting on provider quality and cost performance actually be used by consumers to make good choices for their health care services? That is the question explored…
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A new study published in Health Affairs looks at one of the claimed benefits for broader use of health information technology, that it will reduce redundant test ordering, and finds…
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Years after it was initially predicted to do so, medical care based on individual genetic findings is becoming more pervasive. A new report from UnitedHealth Group examines trends and impacts…
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With the advent of the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services hospital readmission penalty program, hospitals are scrambling to try to identify potential readmissions and manage them. A new Agency…
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Specialty drug costs are growing very rapidly and in a few years may constitute half of all pharmaceutical spending. A new report from the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute highlights trends…
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Another outstanding collection of summaries from the health research literature, including this week, physicians' difficulty in understanding the benefits of screening tests, physicians' feelings about health information technology, AARP's latest…
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One of the causes of rapid health spending growth is the aging of our population. A new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality reviews the literature on…
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A report from the International Federation of Health Plans compares prices for some common services and drugs across several developed countries. In all categories, physician services, hospital care and drugs,…
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About 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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