Obesity is often fingered as a leading cause of health care spending and health spending growth. It also causes significant personal discomfort to those who are overweight. A pair of articles in the NEJM describe the outcomes of interventions to help patients lose weight.
The most recent survey by the Center for Studying Health System Change shows not just plateauing, but an actual decline in consumers health information-seeking behavior, across all consumers. It is unclear what may be responsible for this decrease.
Both providers and consumers are increasingly subjected to positive and negative inducements to behave in certain ways. An article in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine explores some possible behavioral and ethical rules for the design of patient-oriented incentive programs.
The holiday shopping season is in full swing but our Potpourri is free, filled with useful data on high-deductible health plans and utilization, Medicare Advantage plan Stars bonuses, drug complications and hospitalizations, physician office visit trends, premium increases, and patient expectations.
The Kaiser Foundation looks at proposals to revamp Medicare’s cost-sharing design, including possible changes to Medigap benefits, finding that changes could save billions for the program and reduce costs for many beneficiaries.
A Press Ganey report describes trends in patient satisfaction for hospitals, outpatient departments, emergency rooms, physicians and home care and lists top priorities for patients in improving their experience of care.
Pricing for drugs is an arcane world. The Office of Inspector General has attempted to shed light on pricing benchmarks and methodologies and in a new report tries to provide guidance to state Medicaid programs on how to minimize what they pay for drugs used by the programs’ beneficiaries.
A new report by Rand Corp. researchers published in the American Journal of Managed Care finds rapid growth in the use of retail clinics and identifies some of the factors associated with their use.
A new paper at the National Bureau of Economic Research examines the relationship between technology and spending growth in health care. While no firm conclusions are reached, a country’s willingness to spend on health may drive technology development and use rather than vice versa.
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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