Right now the prospects for passage of comprehensive health reform appear dim. If nothing is passed, what are the implications for various participants in the health system? Is it more…
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The current issue of Health Affairs has several articles focusing on the use of telemedicine and HIT to solve health problems in the developing world. The articles describe some success…
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Yet another sampling of health care items, relating to personalized medicine, telemedicine, wellness, disease management and using health data for comparative effectiveness research.
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New research published in Health Affairs finds that geographic variation in Medicare spending is not strongly driven by price variation. Utilization differences appear to be the major cause of that…
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Value-based insurance design attempts to use cost-sharing to maximize use of health services that lead to good health outcomes. Two recent analyses demonstrate that cost-sharing features of health care coverage…
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Many states have created workers' compensation fee schedules based on Medicare reimbursement for physicians. Doing so can create traps if the frequent changes in the Medicare payment mechanisms are not…
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CBO analyzes a Republican proposal on federal spending, finding that the health care-related provisions would significantly reduce federal spending and national health expenditures, while increasing covered persons by an unspecified…
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The Massachusetts Attorney General investigates and discovers that hospitals and some physicians have market power and consequently are able to demand high payments and those payments are the main cause…
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Four times a year public companies regale us with their (usually optimistic) views of the firm's past performance, future prospects and market environment. Interesting information can occasionally be found by…
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Rhode Island released a report on payments to hospitals from various sources and looked at factors accounting for significant differences in payment levels. The variation is likely entirely due to…
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