As long as cost pressures continue, people will search for new and better ways to control them. One area of focus has been the cost of a physician interaction and group visits are an emerging approach to reduce that cost.
Specialist physicians are often blamed for the fragmented and expensive nature of American medical care. A perspective in the NEJM explores whether they might appropriately serve as principal physicians in the patient centered medical home models.
Here’s a novel idea–give patients a set amount of money to spend on health care needs and allow them to manage what services they use for that money. It is a notion that is spreading internationally and just represents an attempt to restore traditional economics to health care.
More exotic gleamings from the world of health care, including self-directed care, telemedicine, point-of-care diagnostics, HCA, doctor-patient interactions and socio-economic factors in health outcomes.
Use of imaging services has become the poster child for health care spending problems, even though excessive imaging may have been rather rapidly controlled by private sector use of imaging benefit managers. New research pours salt on the wounds.
The New England Journal of Medicine publishes dueling commentaries on geographic and provider spending variations. Having a clear understanding of whether there are providers who render more care with no better outcomes would help formulate reforms to change their behavior.
Medco’s acquisition of DNA Direct, a genetic testing management company, may be a reaction to an earlier CVS Caremark transaction, but is also a recognition of the looming flood of genomic information and products that will usher in the era of personalized medicine.
Yet another sampling of health care items, relating to personalized medicine, telemedicine, wellness, disease management and using health data for comparative effectiveness research.
Healthy health care snacks–concierge medicine, personalized medicine, health care hiring, electronic medical records, Medicaid, disease management–all for your reading pleasure on the weekend.
End-of-life care achieved some notoriety in the health reform debate, but it deserves thoughtful attention since it accounts for a great deal of cost and research indicates that patients’ wishes for less intensive care are often not honored. A new study looks at how physicians approach the issue.