Research published in Health Services Research finds that nurse practitioners spend less treating Medicare beneficiaries than do physicians.
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A new paper sponsored by the NBER comes through in its usual spectacular fashion with information showing little correlation between private insurance and Medicare spending per person and a strong…
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Research published in Health Affairs finds that private health plans are paying increasingly more for hospital services compared to Medicare and Medicaid.
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An analysis of premium data from the health insurance exchanges confirms that people are going to be paying more in 2016.
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Research carried in Health Affairs finds that a program of home visits for very complex patients can reduce use of inpatient hospital and ER services.
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A Statistical Brief from AHRQ compares hospitalizations in fee-for-service Medicare and in Medicare Advantage plans.
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A Commonwealth Fund report analyzes the efficacy of various initiatives to better manage care for high-cost patients.
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Research in JAMA Internal Medicine finds that an intervention to lessen use of "low-value" services, in this case, imaging for back pain or headache or bone density testing, by using fake patients and then counseling young physicians, did not work. Maybe we should rely more on doctors' judgment about the value of services and maybe we should recognize their risk-aversion, given the malpractice world they live in.
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2472948Another AHRQ brief on the persistence of health spending reveals there isn't that much among high-cost patients.
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The CMS Office of Actuary releases its estimates of 2014 national health spending, finding significant acceleration to 5.3% growth.
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Shortly after we learned that growth in health spending accelerated in 2014, the ECRI Institute says that new devices and drugs working their way to market in the near future will add $80 billion in annual spending.
https://www.ecri.org/press/Pages/ECRI-Institute-80-Billion-Annual-Spend-Drug-Device-Therapies.aspx?A Congressional Budget Office working paper highlights expenditure expectations related to various cohorts of Medicare beneficiaries.
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Even after the coverage expansions stemming from the reform law, we can't emphasize enough the problems that health care costs create for low and middle-income families, a fact underlined by…
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A brief from the Commonwealth Fund weighs in on the likely consequences of further health plan consolidation.
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About this Blog
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 khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
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