Another scintillating menu of health care tidbits, including provider reaction to the proposed Accountable Care Organization rule; end-of-life care in the US and Canada; hospital volume and outcomes for difficult surgeries; hospital marketing of robotic surgery; and cutting lab test costs.
CMS has proposed a rule to implement a PPACA provision allowing access to extracts of provider-level Medicare data to evaluate performance, primarily on quality measures. This is a good first step, but just a first step in being able to completely profile physician practice patterns.
A new report on prices paid by commercial insurers in Massachusetts shows great variation, which appears unrelated to providers’ costs or to the quality of care delivered. While the specific causes of the variation aren’t analyzed, a large opportunity to limit spending by reducing high-end payments is apparent.
An Institute of Medicine report finds Medicare’s geographic reimbursement adjustment formulas to be seriously flawed and suggests general principles to guide a reworking. The conclusions and follow-up reports are sure to spark substantial controversy.
Responding to a challenge for each medical specialty to find methods for reducing inappropriate care and spending in that specialty, two oncologists identify a number of steps that could easily be adopted and are supported by research findings.
Another round of health tidbits, including the association between primary care workforce and Medicare outcomes, comparisons of Type 2 diabetes drugs, effects of limiting DTC drug advertising, health information exchange sustainability, the effect of the Irish workplace smoking ban and barriers to diffusion of cost-effective care.
The Pew Research Center’s latest survey regarding people’s use of the internet and social media for health purposes reveals continued growth. A large number of Americans view the internet as both a source of information and a place to track their own health and share their own experiences.
The latest paper on geographic variation in Medicare spending uses a different design and statistical tool to demonstrate that higher spending on health care is associated with better health in this population, which upends the traditional analysis and should lead to more careful policymaking.
Great Britain’s electronic health records project is severely off schedule and off budget. The problems of that project, however, are not necessarily likely to be replicated in America’s push to get more IT in health care.
Our Memorial Day Potpourri, celebrating health information such as the growth of high-deductible plans, physician starting salaries, benefit design for high-cost conditions, why emergency room physicians order tests, the use of telehealth for heart failure patients and sources of physician pay.