We appear to be in the midst of a hiatus in rapid health spending growth and health price inflation, a view reinforced by two recent reports from the Altarum Institute.…
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A draft evidence report from AHRQ looks at end-of-life and hospice care. End-of-life care is often fingered as one of the causes of increasing health spending. The report finds moderate…
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Our final commentary of 2011 reflects on developments in health care for the year. Notably, support for the health reform law continues to be weak and health care cost growth…
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One reason given for the need for the reform law was the growth in health insurance costs, although it is yet unclear whether the law reduces or increases those costs…
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Another one of the concepts being counted on to help improve health care quality and lower costs in the wake of reform is the "medical home." An AHRQ draft review…
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How much does health spending per person vary across the fifty states and does that variance occur equally in the commercially insured population, Medicaid eligibles and Medicare beneficiaries? These and…
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A study reported in the American Journal of Managed Care follows up on the comparative geographic variation in spending on Medicare patients and commercially insured ones in Texas, finding that…
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Physicians have felt under assault for decades, with managed care restrictions, low reimbursement and malpractice concerns leading the charge. A new survey from Deloitte's Center for Health Solutions give doctors'…
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The latest research on hospital readmissions, published in the NEJM, finds that the largest single factor associated with readmission rates for heart failure and pneumonia is the underlying rate of…
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The holiday season is in full swing, as is the time for bad weather, but nothing can deter the delivery of our Potpourri of health stories, including this week the…
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Inpatient hospital costs are the largest single category of health care costs and account for much of the last decade's rapid annual rise in health care spending. A statistical brief…
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Another excellent draft report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reviews the evidence related to the effects of bundled payments to providers on quality and costs. The evidence,…
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Disease registries are used to track a number of patients with a common condition to determine factors which affect their outcomes and to help guide their treatment. An article in…
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Another scintillating Potpourri, focused on the effect of copayments on prescription adherence, use of PHRs in the FEHBP plans, doctors use of cancer drugs after a Medicare reimbursement change, visiting…
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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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