An Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality report looks at the evidence for the effectiveness of public reporting of providers' performance on various quality measures in actually creating quality improvements…
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Medication adherence is a widespread problem in health care, ranging from failure to even pick up a prescription to failure to follow instructions on when and how to use the…
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Our first Potpourri in a while is as diverse and flamboyant as the fall colors, including items on the effectiveness of telemonitoring, the history of health "reform" in the United…
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The Physician Group Practice Demonstration conducted by Medicare has largely wrapped up , to be supplanted by the accountable care organization programs. The PGP demo appears to have led to…
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Bundled payments are designed to change the incentives for providers so that they manage patient care in a more cost-effective manner, hopefully without negatively affecting quality. A report from the…
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We, among many others, have been harsh critics of Medicare's misguided hospital readmissions penalty program, which begins this year. MedPAC has weighed in with its views on how to "refine"…
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Research based on data from UnitedHealth Group's commercial health plans finds wide variation in episode of care costs across both selected procedures and chronic diseases. The research also showed that…
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The Institute of Medicine released a report regarding supposed unnecessary spending on health care in the United States and potential ways to remedy that problem, largely through use of health…
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Are financial incentives for providers a good thing? A review in the British Medical Journal examines when financial incentives can be helpful in improving care and when they might actually…
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Yet another brilliant collection of health care data points, including use of gene profiling tests to guide breast cancer care, 30-day mortality models for stroke performance, hospital medication administration errors,…
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The first year of experience with Medicare's readmission program is in and Kaiser has done an initial analysis of the results. A large number of hospitals will be penalized, mostly…
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Research published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research focuses on whether and why the use of online health applications improves patient empowerment and knowledge and if such improvement leads…
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An article from Rand Corporation researchers published in Health Affairs details the continued growth and use of retail clinics. These facilities offer a convenient and inexpensive method for consumers 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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