Research indicates that commercial health insurance, while it has geographic variation in spending, does not vary in the same way as Medicare. A primary factor explaining private health plan geographic…
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The Office of Personnel Management releases a report showing progress in the number of FEHBP plans offering PHRs to members, but little use of those PHRs by patients and little…
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A Health Affairs article examines changes in the composition of Medicare spending over the last two decades, finding that chronic disease is now the primary driver of that spending and…
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The New England Journal of Medicine publishes dueling commentaries on geographic and provider spending variations. Having a clear understanding of whether there are providers who render more care with no…
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Health plans are receiving a lot of negative publicity regarding individual policy price increases. This development, however, should have been entirely expected in light of the recession and typical consumer…
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Select from this menu of topics on health improvement incentives, genetic testing for cancer treatment, health plan collaboration on use of IT for administration, value-based insurance design and comparative effectiveness…
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Much concern has been expressed about whether the FDA may make changes to the 510(k) and other regulations that hinder speed to market for medical device companies. A recently finalized…
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Personalized medicine is widely promoted as the future of health care. Several government agencies are examining the implications of growth in genomic knowledge and its application to medical practice. CDC…
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As part of health care reform, various reimbursement changes have proposed, such as episode bundling or time-based global payments. An article in Cancer points out that such revisions to payments…
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If there is no systemic federal health reform legislation, what are the most important individual bills that could be considered to limit cost increases, improve access and improve quality? In…
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