Improving primary care is viewed as a method to lower health spending while maintaining or even improving quality. A Health Affairs article reports on a Virginia program that appears to…
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The segment of the population which is elderly and poor, thus often eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid coverage, is often not in good health and has very high expenses.…
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All the focus on quality and the effect of spending on quality of care has led to some creative research approaches to understanding what that relationship may be. A new…
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Our latest Potpourri features the comparative cost of cancer care in the US and elsewhere, the effect of genomics on spending, international practice guidelines, state Medicaid waivers, unintended consequences from…
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The IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics has released a wonderful report on use of prescription drugs in the United States in 2011. A great deal of detailed information on therapeutic…
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In an era of multiple programs measuring outcomes and costs by provider and by disease or condition, the importance of consistent coding in the data used to do the measurement…
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One of the surprises of the expansion of health coverage in Massachusetts is that it seems to have increased emergency room use. A new study shows that this phenomenon might…
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In general, lower drug costs have helped decrease health spending growth, but specialty drug prices and use, often for cancer, have increased rapidly. New reports show these cost increases are…
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Physicians are as aware as anyone of the need to control health spending. Several physician specialty associations have released lists of procedures or treatments that consumers and doctors should question…
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One of the theories behind geographic variation in health spending analysis is that there are areas where high rates of inappropriate care delivery exist, leading to higher spending. A new…
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Welcome to another Potpourri of health information, focusing on workers' comp medical prices, cost-sharing on asthma meds, the Medicare Advantage program, doctors' experience of quality improvement programs, a review of…
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Every year the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission puts out a report on its views on the current state of Medicare, its major issues and recommendations to Congress and the Centers…
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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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