Its March and spring nears; our Potpourri blooms with nuggets of health care information, including comparative regulation of medical devices in the US and Europe, do physicians always truthful with patients, CMS’ oversight of home health care agencies, the validity of a CMS’ measure of ER scanning, and patient-centered care.
The CMS program to reduce, or at least penalize hospitals for, unnecessary readmissions is in full swing this year. A new study looks at how Medicare Advantage plans do in regard to readmissions for their beneficiaries and compares this performance to that for fee-for-service beneficiaries.
According to a new report from Thomson Reuters, $36 billion a year could be saved in health care spending if provider prices were more transparent to consumers. There is a little faulty reasoning in the report, but there is no doubt that it is extremely difficult for consumers to find, understand and compare the price of health care.
Yet another missive for the debate on the sources of variation in health spending, this time from the Center for Studying Health System Change, which looked at autoworker claims across the country, finding that people’s health status and hospital prices were the major factor in geographic spending differences.
One of the hot new concepts is use of “medical home” physician practices to improve quality and lower costs. A study from Health Affairs suggests that practices having medical home characteristics don’t necessarily do better in producing good outcomes for outpatients.
Our latest Potpourri, a week late and we apologize, covers virtual coaching, the integration of drug and medical benefit management, how doctors chose to handle their own end-of-life care, Medicaid and ER visits, and malpractice and orthopedics.
End-of-life care discussions got some unwarranted and unwanted attention during the reform law debates, being characterized as “death panels”. The discussions are important, however, to ensure consistency with patient preferences and a new study finds they don’t always happen in the best manner.
One of the concerns around the continued wrangling over the long-term setting of physician compensation for services to Medicare beneficiaries is whether payment, and other aspects of the program, have reached a level where beneficiary access may be impacted. A recent Office of Inspector General report found inadequate data to address the question.
A survey of high-deductible health plan users finds that care is more likely to be deferred by enrollees in such plans as opposed to traditional ones, particularly low-income persons, but not for patients with chronic conditions. The survey has weaknesses, including the fact that it does not explore outcomes.
Placebo and nocebo effects are just part of the broader topic of how patient perceptions about their health, illnesses and treatments may affect outcomes. An article in Current Directions in Psychological Science summarizes research on patient perception of illness.
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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