While the state health insurance exchanges required by the health reform law have attracted much attention, the private sector has been busy creating its own exchanges and an Accenture report gives a status report on those.
A new study suggests that Medicare’s lower payments to hospitals, contrary to prevailing beliefs, don’t lead to cost-shifting and actually lower private insurer payment rates. The reality or mechanism of this finding is not clear.
A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that greater penetration by Medicare Advantage plans leads to lower rates of hospitalization and mortality for beneficiaries.
The annual report from the Trustees of the Medicare Trust Funds finds that they are in a little better shape than projected last year because Medicare spending has been below prior estimates, but long-term action is still needed to avoid serious problems in the relatively near future.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released its annual report on quality of health care in the United States, covering the year 2012, finding both improvement and room for further gains.
Quality measurement and incentive programs have become the norm but a new Report from the Urban Institute points out serious defects and issues with the design and execution of most of these programs.
Medicare Advantage plans have been a source of controversy, but a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that they have beneficial spillover effects across the health system.
Once more into the breach on geographic variation is spending, with the latest analysis examining case mix or patient health adjustments and finding that patient health accounts for 75-85% of the variation in spending, at least for Medicare beneficiaries.
The best way to understand health spending and its growth may be to examine the arc of spending over a typical life and to test the effect of better health behaviors or medical services delivery on that arc of spending. A report from the Society of Actuaries explores this approach.
Overuse of certain medical services is believed to be widespread and to contribute to excessive health spending growth. A review of the literature suggests that no particular organized system of care does a better job than others at reducing inappropriate service use.