The PriceWaterhouseCooper Health Research Institute released its projections for medical trend for 2014, finding it will dip to 6.5%, which is still well ahead of economic growth or general inflation.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has issued a report on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System, which delves into a series of issues including hospital readmissions, payments for various services in different settings, hospice care and new methods of delivering Medicare plans.
Under contract with the US Department of Labor, the Rand organization conducted research on the effects of wellness programs. While employee participation is often not high, the programs appear to have positive effects on health and a small lowering of utilization and costs.
A report from the Commonwealth Fund studying comparative health spending and quality across 13 industrialized countries finds that the United States is by far the highest spender as a percent of GDP, primarily because of higher unit prices.
Yet another piece of research, this one published in Health Affairs, suggests that hospital readmission rates are a far from perfect, or even good, measure of hospital quality.
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.