All the focus on quality and the effect of spending on quality of care has led to some creative research approaches to understanding what that relationship may be. A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research looks at ambulance to hospital patterns to see what can be gleaned there.
A Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report summarizes the federal incentive program for adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records and reports on progress, which appears to be very slow.
Our latest Potpourri features the comparative cost of cancer care in the US and elsewhere, the effect of genomics on spending, international practice guidelines, state Medicaid waivers, unintended consequences from patient satisfaction efforts and county health rankings.
The IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics has released a wonderful report on use of prescription drugs in the United States in 2011. A great deal of detailed information on therapeutic category, cost sharing and source of prescription dispensing is presented, along with trend information.
In an era of multiple programs measuring outcomes and costs by provider and by disease or condition, the importance of consistent coding in the data used to do the measurement cannot be overstated, yet it appears that coding, and coding changes may have a substantial influence in results, according to a new JAMA study.
One of the surprises of the expansion of health coverage in Massachusetts is that it seems to have increased emergency room use. A new study shows that this phenomenon might occur in all insurance changes and if the reform law is fully implemented, ERs may be overwhelmed.
In general, lower drug costs have helped decrease health spending growth, but specialty drug prices and use, often for cancer, have increased rapidly. New reports show these cost increases are exacerbated by a sift in treatment from physician offices to hospital settings.
An early spring for much of the country and our latest Potpourri is in full bloom, with nuggets on health information exchanges, genetic testing guidelines, an employer survey on reform, EMRs and lab test ordering and the relationship between clinical quality and patient satisfaction.
Physicians are as aware as anyone of the need to control health spending. Several physician specialty associations have released lists of procedures or treatments that consumers and doctors should question before using. This hopefully reflects a trend of physicians being more engaged in delivering only needed care.
A new study from the National Bureau of Economics finds that greater levels of education are associated with better health behaviors, without regard to specific knowledge of health risks or to a person’s native level of intelligence. Better educational attainment may in turn reflect family circumstances.
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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