A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund describes the status of plans to have accountable care organizations and other provider systems take on financial risk for their patients, finding that there is a gap between the plans and the providers capabilities to manage the risk.
Our current Potpourri contains nuggets on use of robotic surgery for prostate cancer, the effect of mandated rebates in Medicare Part D on patient costs, FDA guidance on device modifications, state Medicaid EHR incentive programs, patient understanding of trial data, and use of FQHC’s by Medicaid enrollees.
Each year CMS issues proposed, and ultimately final, rules relating to reimbursement for various categories of providers in the next year. The 2012 rules have a wealth of background and other information in them, including significant detail on the increasingly important quality measurement programs.
A lot of the work on geographic variation in spending has been done on the Medicare population. New research published in Health Affairs examines variation in Medicaid spending for the disabled population and finds significant differences based on both volume and unit prices.
Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine examines early results from the Massachusetts Blue Cross plan’s global budgeting program, finding very modest health spending reductions and small changes in quality.
The National Venture Capital Association released statistics regarding second quarter of 2011 venture capital activity. While some aspects of exits, fund-raising and investing have improved from the depth of the recession, levels are still lower than optimal to facilitate overall economic growth.
The dog days of summer bring yet another scorching hot Potpourri with a smorgasbord of data, including metabias in randomized clinical trials, the practice of defensive medicine, the status of HIEs, retail pharmacy drug costs and pricing and spending on medical devices.
The FDA released a draft guidance on how it will regulate mobile and wireless healthcare devices and applications, which to a large extent follows proposed guidance from the mHealth Regulatory Coalition. The guidance may facilitate growth of this industry segment.
An AHRQ Statistical Brief looks at the most costly health conditions for 2008. They are about what you would expect, with heart disease and cancer leading the way. Women and men have the same top ten expensive conditions, but in slightly different order.
A recent report from the NIHCM details national spending, showing that a few patients account for a lot of costs and that hospitals are the largest source of spending growth. Unit price increases are more important than utilization in explaining spending rises. Insurance administrative costs have actually declined as a percent of spending.
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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