Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that financial incentives may not do much to incent better quality.
Research published in Health Services Research finds that nurse practitioners spend less treating Medicare beneficiaries than do physicians.
Following changes in prostate cancer screening using the PSA test, rates of testing and detection of early cancer have declined, with uncertain effects on health outcomes.
Research published in Health Affairs takes a look at the effect of a value-based purchasing contract on mental health services.
We continue our review of the 2015-16 drug benefit report, looking at utilization management, network design and other issues.
The 2015-2016 Prescription Benefit Management Institute report on drug benefits reveals useful information about design and cost trends.
Today we continue the evaluation of the NBER paper on Medicare and private health plan geographic spending variation, with the focus on hospitals role in that variation.
A new paper sponsored by the NBER comes through in its usual spectacular fashion with information showing little correlation between private insurance and Medicare spending per person and a strong link between hospital consolidation, prices and private health plan costs.
I don’t know why I even bother trying to identify major trends for the coming year, given a pretty pathetic record in the past, but here goes.
As a companion article to yesterday’s post, the Forum for Health Economics and Policy describes trends in Medicare beneficiaries well-being and financial status, which can affect their health needs.