The New Yorker carries an exceptional article by Atul Gawande on end-of-life care, highlighting irrational reimbursement policies and the difficult decisions that both patients and providers must make.
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Although its reform effort appears to have gone amok, largely for cost reasons, the state of Massachusetts is producing a lot of useful data and research on medical service delivery,…
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A study of diagnostic practices for Medicare beneficiaries reveals geographic variations. These variations not only may suggest either under or overuse of diagnostic tests but they can bias other research…
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A lot of great items in this week's potpourri, covering the acquisition of HealthGrades, what encourages men to get screenings, potential cheating on pay-for-performance schemes, the problems of a multi-payer…
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There has been no more gnarly health care problem for Congress than how to deal with physician reimbursement. At some point, as a Health Affairs article points out, it will…
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Trashing insurance companies is popular and one of the most frequent complaints is about their premium increases and profits. A NEJM perspective uses misleading information to continue dumping on health…
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A study in JAMA suggests that process-of-care quality measures, which are frequently used for bonus or penalty reimbursement programs, may have little real relationship to ultimate health outcomes.
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Workers' compensation health cost trends may provide some insight into underlying medical cost issues across the system and vice versa. An NCCI report looks at factors driving trends in medical…
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The notion of a health insurance exchange to assist individuals and small groups in finding affordable health insurance is a critical part of the coverage expansion in the recent health…
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More midsummer musings, covering possible replacements for AWP, the effect of Part D on heart failure drug use, the VA's telehealth programs, venture capital activity, self-management of high blood pressure,…
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