Commentary Archives for July 2012
Deloitte Employer Survey
Deloitte surveyed a number of employers for their views on the US health care system. Most feel the system needs substantial improvement, particularly in regard to costs and most view the Affordable Care Act as a bad start to fixing the problems.
Engagement in Health
Patient and family engagement in health and managing health care is a necessary condition to seeing real improvement in our health system. A report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality looks at various techniques for creating such engagement in regard to hospital care.
2012 Potpourri XXIII
At the height of the summer, with dryness across the land, there is no drought of information in our Potpourri, this week including use of an interactive health record to increase preventive care, Medicare and Medicaid geographical variation, shared decision-making, readmissions for heart attacks and Japan’s all-payer rate setting system.
Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction and patient-centered care are two health care movements which are being incented and rewarded by various government and private payer programs, but a Perspective in the Journal of the American Medical Association points out that these concepts may not lead to the most desirable outcomes.
Federally Qualified Health Centers
Federally qualified community health centers are a lynchpin to providing accessible health care for lower income Americans. Two recent reports discuss quality and cost issues at these centers and indicate that they are a very good option for care.
Reducing Medication Errors at Hospital Discharge
Medication errors figure prominently in health care spending, and errors after hospital discharge are a cause of readmissions. Recently reported research examined whether an intervention by clinical pharmacists could reduce such errors.
Hospital Executive Compensation
Hospital costs are the major contributor to national health spending growth. A report from the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy examines executive compensation at the state’s non-profit hospitals, which is quite substantial and bears no relation to quality.
2012 Potpourri XXII
Our Potpourri finally returns, including items on duplicate payments in federal health programs, EHR use and malpractice claims, venture capital statistics, consumer use of online self-service applications, and a new statistical method for predictive modeling.
Virtual Physician Consults
The British Medical Informations and Decision Making Journal carries research comparing traditional and virtual consulations. Patient satisfaction is equivalent across the two methods and doctors are also accepting of virtual visits.
Rand on CDHP
No matter how controversial they may be, consumer-directed health plans with their higher cost-sharing continue to spread rapidly. A Rand Corporation brief examines the evidence on the effect of these plans on the cost and use of health care.
IMS Drug Report
IMS has a tremendous amount of information on prescription drug use and their reports are always worth paying attention to. The latest provides their outlook through 2016, finding steady increases in overall global spending, with less on brand names and more on generic.
Hospital Consolidation Costs Us All
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation summarizes and follows up research on the contribution of hospitals to spending increases and in particular the effects of hospital consolidation. Not good news for hospitals, especially large systems in non-competitive areas.
Deloitte Consumer Survey
Deloitte publishes its fifth annual survey of consumers on the performance of the American health system and the effects of health reform. The health reform law isn’t positively viewed, but people seem satisfied with their own care.
Medicaid ER Usage
Emergency room use tends to be expensive, and may reflect difficulty accessing other sources of primary care. Medicaid recipients are often identified as frequent inappropriate users of emergency rooms, but a new report from the Center for Studying Health System Change attempts to rebut that notion.
2012 MedPAC Report
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission delivers an annual report to Congress on what it views as the pressing issues for the Medicare program. This year’s report touches on several issues, which have relevance for health care in general.
Patient-Centered Health IT
Another excellent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has been released, this one examining the state of health information technology that enables patient-centered care. The report summarizes evidence on the utility of HIT for improving care quality and barriers to its further spread.
Comparative Regulatory Review of Drugs
The New England Journal of Medicine contains an article on the relative review process and outcomes for the FDA, Health Canada, and the European Medicines Agency, with the surprising finding that the FDA is faster than its corresponding agencies.
Retirement and Health
One of the biggest issues facing retirees is health care costs, notwithstanding the availability of Medicare for many retirees when they retire and for all eventually. Stress over finances can also have a detrimental effect on retiree health. The Employee Benefits Research Institute issues a periodic survey on retirement-related trends which includes health questions. The [...]