A systematic review of hospital inpatient clinic decision support systems in the BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making finds little evidence that they have a significant impact on health spending.
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Examination of emergency room use by people who newly obtained coverage under Oregon's Medicaid lottery finds a significant increase, usually for non-emergent conditions.
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An article in the New England Journal of Medicine reviews the recent decline in the rate of growth of US health spending and analyzes whether it might persist.
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A study in the American Journal of Managed Care looked at specialty drug use in a commercial population from 2000 to 2009, finding that about 1.6% of patients were prescribed a specialty drug, and these drugs represented about 9.3% of overall pharmacy spending. Over the study period specialty drug costs went from about 1% of total health spending to 3.7%, a rate of growth that likely has accelerated, but that the authors view as relatively insignificant in cost control efforts.
http://www.ajmc.com/publications/ajpb/2013/ajpb_2013_nov/The-Role-of-Specialty-Drugs-in-Private-Sector-Healthcare-Spending?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=AJMC&utm_campaign=AJPB+Specialty+12%2D26%2D13An interesting paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research looks at health in the United States since 1750, tracing the interaction of economic and health gains.
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The Commonwealth Fund, ever the apologist for the reform law, issues a brief suggesting that recent premium increases are not due to the reform law but to health cost rises.…
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PriceWaterhouseCooper opines on important health industry trends and concerns for 2014 in a report from its Health Research Institute.
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A new brief from the Center for Studying Health System Change examines the results of early experience with a reference pricing model for expensive health care treatments.
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A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research looks at the slowdown in health care spending, identifying three primary factors, but the authors are pessimistic about the enduring nature…
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A Milliman report shows that the same cancer treatment costs far more in a hospital outpatient setting than it does in a physician's office.
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The excellent Altarum Institute index on health inflation showed only a 1% year-over-year increase in September, with even hospital prices rising only at 1.5%. Utilization increased 2.7% on a per capita basis. The bad news is that overall health spending in real terms continues to outpace economic growth.
http://altarum.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-related-files/CSHS-Price-Brief_November%202013.pdfA new study in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine examines associations between insurance coverage and health behaviors.
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A new report from the Health Systems Innovation Network provides data on the costs of the Medicaid expansion for states. The report should serve as an early warning call to…
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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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