A study reported in Health Affairs finds that American physicians spend much more time at a much higher cost interacting with insurers than do Canadian physicians, who only have to…
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Further evidence that hospitals with market power raise prices almost at will and disregard opportunities to cut costs is provided by research reported in Health Affairs. Hospitals in concentrated markets…
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This week's Potpourri features dropped malpractice claims, the quality benefits of EHRs, improper Medicare payments, health insurer customer satisfaction, the utilization and cost effects of using hospitalists, and determining if…
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Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that the onset of Part D prescription drug coverage helped reduce relative non-drug spending for those beneficiaries who previously…
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The Government Accounting Office examined various interventions designed to improve the quality of health care and/or lower costs and analyzed the strength of the evidence supporting the effect of the…
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Projections of national health expenditures through 2010 show a continued relentless upward trend, at a rate faster than GDP growth; with spending reaching 20% of GDP by the end of…
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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…
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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,…
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