An examination of variation in the costs of specific episodes of care for Medicare beneficiaries finds that health of the population in an area and practice patterns appear to account…
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Medication Therapy Management is mandated for certain Medicare beneficiaries, but many more patients may benefit from its focus on prescription drugs as a care management tool
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A study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that use of telemonitoring with pharmacist consultation can help in blood pressure control.
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The IMS Institute for Health Informatics publishes a report suggesting that using prescription medicines more appropriately would save $200 billion annually in health spending in the United States. Really?
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An Employee Benefits Research Institute study delves further into the effects of high deductible plans on access to and use of services.
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One of the thorniest problems in health care management is that while it is relatively easy to identify patients who have high cost now, predicting or understanding utilization over a…
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The PriceWaterhouseCooper Health Research Institute released its projections for medical trend for 2014, finding it will dip to 6.5%, which is still well ahead of economic growth or general inflation.
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A report from the Commonwealth Fund studying comparative health spending and quality across 13 industrialized countries finds that the United States is by far the highest spender as a percent…
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A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that greater penetration by Medicare Advantage plans leads to lower rates of hospitalization and mortality for beneficiaries.
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Medicare Advantage plans have been a source of controversy, but a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that they have beneficial spillover effects across the health…
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Once more into the breach on geographic variation is spending, with the latest analysis examining case mix or patient health adjustments and finding that patient health accounts for 75-85% of…
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Overuse of certain medical services is believed to be widespread and to contribute to excessive health spending growth. A review of the literature suggests that no particular organized system of…
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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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