A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research examines the effect of a physician pay-for-performance program in Canada. The study found very limited effects of the incentives in spurring greater delivery of the care which was incented.
CMS currently intends to implement its readmissions penalty/incentive program in a manner that may not truly distinguish between good and poor quality at hospitals, according to recent research in Canada which finds no correlation between overall readmission rates and inappropriate readmissions.
Summer begins to wane but our Potpourri remains hot, with items on large employers benefit intentions for 2012, Australia’s project to create a unified patient medical record, hospital collections at the point-of-service, physician compensation, trends in per capita medical costs and how to avoid issues in accountable care organizations.
A report from The King’s Fund articulates the benefits of shared decision-making and provides a detailed roadmap for how to effectively implement its use more widely. A great deal of work on creating decision aids and training providers needs to be done.
An issue brief from the Center for Studying Health System Change reviews the potential effects of increasing employment of physicians by hospitals. While there may be benefits in terms of greater care integration, the trend also will likely drive up spending.
It is often observed that more financially well-off persons tend to have better health than their poorer counterparts. Teasing out whether this is correlation or causality that runs in one direction or the other has been difficult. A new NBER paper attempts to answer this question.
Malpractice and tort reform are politically controversial and there is uncertainty about how much malpractice litigation there is and how it affects medical practice. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine attempts to shed further light on the subject.
Our thirty-second Potpourri of the year brings fascinating health items such as how to design wellness incentives, how Medicare could save money, the complexities of improving care, the use of community health centers to save money, designing subjective survey questions and an intervention to reduce hospital readmissions.
The Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality released a report on the Comparative Effectiveness of Case Management for Adults with Medical Illness and Complex Care Needs. This metareview found limited evidence for positive effects of any care management intervention.
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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