There you are, relaxing on a holiday and holiday weekend and for some reason you feel compelled to browse the internet and come across our Thanksgiving potpourri, hopefully not a turkey, but stuffed with edible data, including HHS’ final rule on MLRs; the AMAs survey on prior authorization; principles for ACOs, how to use research studies, Humana’s acquisition of Concentra and an explanation of why health care costs keep going up. Happy Thanksgiving!
The Dartmouth Atlas project has issued numerous reports on variation in health spending across the United States. The most recent report focuses on cancer care for terminal patients and once again finds substantial difference in resource use both across and within geographic regions.
The Government Accounting Office interviewed representatives of a number of integrated provider systems to ascertain features, purported benefits in assisting underserved populations and challenges to the success of the organizations.
New research reported in the NEJM finds that telemonitoring of recently discharged heart failure patients did not result in better outcomes than did usual care, but characteristics of the study and analysis mean that the results should not be over-interpreted.
Thanksgiving approaches and we are thankful for the continuing stream of news to fill our Potpourri, including the effect of malpractice liability on Illinois’ ability to retain physicians; the role of prices in health spending increases; comparative health and death rates in the US and England; employer health insurance costs; CBO review of a plan to reshape to Medicare; and end-of-life decision making.
Another study, this time from the Center for Studying Health System Change, suggests that hospital market power plays a substantial role in health care cost increases and discusses some possible options to address the problem.
Phillips releases its first in a projected series of reports on a global health and well-being index. The trans-country survey reflects commonalities and divergence around the world on levels of satisfaction and concern regarding a number of health and life issues.
Older Americans have a high rate of chronic disease and those patients are responsible for much of overall health spending. An article in JAMA explores programs designed to manage care better for these patients.
Concern about the growing number of uninsured Americans was one of the primary drivers of the health reform bill enacted earlier this year. Looking at the characteristics of the uninsured provides some interesting insights.
A Towers Watson survey examined employees perspectives on their health plans. High cost sharing appears to be a major concern, but many employees are not taking proactive steps to help reduce those costs.
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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