Posts Tagged “Consumers”
ShowHide 3rd Party PapersDeloitte: The Hidden Costs of U.S. Health Care for Consumers
Pew Internet: 19% of Americans have tried video calls or video chat or teleconferencing online and on cell phones
Family Medicine: Physician Satisfaction with Chronic Care Processes: A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Guided Care
PewResearchCenter: Understanding the participatory news consumer – How internet and cell phone users have turned news into a social experience
Canadian Family Physician: New study looks at wheter computer use in patient-physician encounters influence patient satisfaction?
Commonwealth Fund: Paying the Price: How Health Insurance Premiums Are Eating Up Middle-Class Incomes
Canopy Financial: Average HSA account balances increase for first time since 2008
Health Affairs: High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans: Efforts To Sharpen A Blunt Instrument
Health Affairs: Annual Medical Spending Attributable To Obesity
ShowHide Commentary
CDHP Enrollee Characteristics
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, May 8, 2013
A report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute examines the characteristics of persons enrolled in consumer-driven and high-deductible health plans, which continue to show rapid growth.
Patient Satisfaction Ratings
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, April 11, 2013
A report from the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute discusses the importance of patient experience and satisfaction ratings and the difficulty consumers have in accessing information from various rating sources.
Tags: Consumers, Patient Satisfaction
Provider/Patient Relationships and Quality of Care
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 8, 2013
A report from the Health Foundation and Rand Europe examines how efforts to change the relationship between providers and patients may affect the quality of health care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality
Exchanges and Navigators
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 5, 2013
The department of Health and Human Services has issued rules regarding the role and use of “navigators” in the health insurance exchanges called for by the reform act.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance, Health Insurance Exchange
CMS Research on the Uninsured
by Kevin Roche on Monday, March 25, 2013
Supposedly the reform act will be fully implemented next January and millions of Americans will be getting health insurance for the first time. A brief from CMS discusses who the potential newly insured are, providing market research for interested parties.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Uninsured
Effect of Wellness Programs
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, March 21, 2013
The most recent issue of Health Affairs focuses on health and wellness. One of the programs reported found that in a health system’s employee population, hospitalizations were reduced but not overall costs.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Wellness and Prevention
An Alternative Method for Engaging Patients
by Kevin Roche on Monday, March 18, 2013
An article in Health Affairs discusses an alternative to patient engagement on health care decisions–using the findings of behavioral economics and pyschology to encourage patients to adopt a desired path or care alternative.
Patient Engagement and Decision-Making
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Several studies in Health Affairs focus on consumer decision-making in health care and how to “improve” that decision-making, which often seems to mean how to get the patient to agree to do what the doctor or a payer or a policy-maker thinks they should do.
Consumer Engagement in Health
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Consumer engagement in health is one of the themes of the current issue of Health Affairs. Two of the articles summarize findings regarding the effects of more engaged consumers on spending and health.
Pew Survey on Use of Health Technology
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The latest Pew Research survey relating to health care asks about how people track health matters and finds that relatively few use technology, even though easily available, for this purpose.
Patient Navigation Report
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, January 17, 2013
The Center for Health Affairs releases a report regarding opportunities for patient navigation tools and services to improve health care quality and potentially impact spending.
EBRI on Consumer Engagement
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The Employee Benefits Research Institute publishes its findings from the annual Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey, finding that enrollment in high-deductible plans continues to grow and that there are demographic and behavioral differences in the enrollees in these plans.
Impact of Reform Law on Age-Based Premiums
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, January 10, 2013
One of the things the new reform law does is limit the ability to adjust health insurance premiums on the basis of age. A study from Oliver Wyman examines the likely effect on premiums for younger people, who will be mandated to buy insurance. Not a pretty picture.
Doctors’ Responses to Patient Drug Requests
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine looks at the association between various physician characteristics and acquiescence to patient drug requests, finding some interesting correlations.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Physicians
CDHP and Preventive Care
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A study published in Health Affairs examined consumers’ awareness of preventive care benefits in their high-deductible insurance plans, finding that many were unaware that these services were available without charge.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Wellness and Prevention
Health Insurance and Health Behavior
by Kevin Roche on Monday, December 31, 2012
A new paper from the National Bureau of Health Economics suggests that not allowing insurers to vary rates based on health status reduces incentives to be healthy, leading to an overall decline in population health, and, guess what, that leads to an increase in health spending.
Employer Based Insurance Costs
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, December 26, 2012
A Kaiser Family Foundation snapshot examines cost-sharing between employers and employees based on data from the KFF 2012 health benefit survey. In general public employees are getting a much better health benefit deal than are employees at private firms.
2012 Potpourri XXXIX
by Kevin Roche on Friday, December 21, 2012
Our penultimate Potpourri for 2012 is a festive blend of health data, including avoidance of health care due to costs, rates of expected spending increases in 2013, costs for younger versus older physicians, internet versus print health interventions, medical home results and poor health behaviors and health spending.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, HIT, Medical Homes, Physicians, Wellness and Prevention
The Cost of Medication Non-Adherence
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Medication non-adherence has many causes and is likely a serious quality issue. Capgemini, the consulting group, has released a report claiming that such non-adherence adds hundreds of billions of dollars to our health care spending, and costs drug companies a similarly large amount of revenue.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality
2012 Potpourri XXXV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, November 16, 2012
Thanks be given for our last Potpourri before Thanksgiving, a table spread with delectable bites of information on hospital readmissions and quality measure performance, health plan enrollment growth, health price rises, use of deductibles in employer-based health insurance and trends in employment of physicians.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance, Hospital Readmissions, Medicare, Pay For Performance, Physicians
Health Insurance Exchanges and Switching Coverage
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Another paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, this one examining consumer behavior in the context of the Medicare Part D exchange and finding that beneficiary inertia seems to result in less than optimal choices and lost savings opportunities.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Health Insurance Exchange, Medicare
Does Health Insurance Cost Sharing Lower Productivity?
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 17, 2012
A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research explores whether increased cost-sharing in health care coverage has affected the productivity of employees subject to this greater out-of-pocket spending for health care. They find that workers with higher cost-sharing have more absenteeism but not more short-term disability stays.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Workplace
The Effect of Patients Reading Their Doctor’s Notes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine examines the effects of allowing patients to read the notes written by physicians about their health and care. Patients generally seem to regard the practice very positively and it appears to have little negative impact on physician work processes.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, HIT, Physicians
Consumer Anticipation of Health Prices
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 9, 2012
An interesting paper from the National Bureau of Economics focuses on moral hazard in health insurance and more specifically the extent to which consumers anticipation of future spending affects utilization, given the complicated nature of insurance cost-sharing, with a deductible, copays and an out-of-pocket maximum.
Aon Hewitt Employer Survey
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Yet another survey of the employer market, this one from Aon Hewitt, which also reflects views of employees covered under their companies’ health plans. Aon Hewitt finds that employers are stepping up their level of action in regard to designing and operating health plans and other programs to encourage better health.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
The Kaiser Family Foundation Report on Health Care Coverage
by Kevin Roche on Monday, September 17, 2012
The Kaiser Family Foundation published its annual survey on Employer Health Benefits. While the rate of growth in both single and family health insurance premiums has slowed, it is still well above inflation, wage growth or GDP growth and while employee cost-sharing is relatively flat, the amount spent on health insurance by the average employee continues to grow far faster than income.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
2012 Potpourri XXVIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 14, 2012
Another brilliant edition of our Potpourri, focusing on individual health insurance rate reform, variation in traumatic care costs, genetic counseling and diabetes, small business and health care costs and savings from wellness programs.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Regulation, Wellness and Prevention
Consumers and their Health Care Coverage
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Employee Benefit Research Institute has released a survey on consumers attitudes toward their health care coverage. Among three types of coverage, traditional, high deductible with no savings account and high deductible with a savings account, enrollees in high-deductible plans had similar overall levels of satisfaction to those in traditional plans, but greater dissatisfaction relating to cost-sharing.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance
Designing Internet Health Applications
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 22, 2012
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 to better health outcomes.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, HIT
Retail Clinic Growth
by Kevin Roche on Monday, August 20, 2012
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 access health care and offer an increasing menu of services.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Retail Clinics
PWC on Health Care Customers’ Experience
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The “consumer” is all the rage in health care and a new report form PWC examines the customer experience and how to improve it, based on expectations in other industries and surveys of health care patients. Simple things like friendliness, speed and convenience may be keys to building loyalty and managing retention.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality
2012 Potpourri XXV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 10, 2012
Another wonderful Potpourri, as lovely as a summer day, with information on small physician practices, medication adherence in Medicaid, access to care in Massachusetts, plan loyalty and PHRs, a survey regarding onsite health centers and hospital productivity in Massachusetts after reform.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, Medicaid, Physicians
Engagement in Health
by Kevin Roche on Monday, July 30, 2012
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.
Tags: Consumers, Hospital, Wellness and Prevention
2012 Potpourri XXIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 27, 2012
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.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, HIT, Hospital, Hospital Readmissions, Medicaid, Medicare, Physicians, Wellness and Prevention
Patient Satisfaction
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 26, 2012
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.
2012 Potpourri XXII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 20, 2012
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.
Tags: Consumers, Financings, Government, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Malpractice
Virtual Physician Consults
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 19, 2012
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.
Deloitte Consumer Survey
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 13, 2012
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.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform
Patient-Centered Health IT
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 6, 2012
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.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, HIT
2012 Potpourri XXI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, June 22, 2012
It is officially the start of summer and our Potpourri is hot, hot, hot, but not steamy! This week we cover why health care IT doesn’t seem to create productivity gains, the use of whole-genome sequencing, the consequences on failure to comply with prescribed drug regimens and the rates of drug misuse and the potential savings for patients in CDHP plans.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Genomics, Health Care Costs, HIT
EBRI Report on the CDHP Population
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Our next report related to consumer-directed, high deductible health insurance plans comes from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and describes the characteristics of people in these plans over the years 2005-2011.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance
AHIP on CDHP
by Kevin Roche on Monday, June 18, 2012
This week we will discuss several high deductible insurance plan reports. The first is from America’s Health Insurance Plans and gives information on details of enrolllment and plan types.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance
2012 Potpourri XX
by Kevin Roche on Friday, June 15, 2012
Our Potpourri resumes, with information on consumer trust of insurers and providers, consumer use of online health information, price transparency in health care, imaging rates in integrated health care systems and effectiveness of telephonic depression therapy.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, HIT, Physicians, Telemedicine
2012 Potpourri XVIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, May 25, 2012
We are on the road, but our Potpourri remains, in this issue covering malpractice claims against doctors, wellness program outcomes, the effect of drinking coffee, do EHRs help improve care and a wellness survey of employers.
Tags: Consumers, EHRs, Health Care Costs, HIT, Malpractice, Physicians, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
CDH Plans
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Consumer-directed or high-deductible insurance plans continue to grow in popularity and an article in Health Affairs suggests that they could save over $50 billion annually if most people were covered under them.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, HIT
Social Media and Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 23, 2012
PriceWaterhouseCooper has issued a report on health care and social media. While there appears to be a fair amount of activity by health care providers and companies on social media websites, it is unclear that are any impacts on meaningful outcomes like quality or costs.
Tags: Consumers, Social Media
2012 Potpourri XIV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 20, 2012
More delightful health facts for your edification in our most recent Potpourri, including the cost of obesity, an employer survey on wellness programs, opportunities for hospitals to reduce costs, an employer survey on cost expectations in the coming year, Massachusetts’ and health spending control and incentives in health care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Hospital, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
2012 Potpourri XIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 13, 2012
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 patient satisfaction efforts and county health rankings.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Medicaid, Medical Care, Pay For Performance
Physicians on Inappropriate Medical Care
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, April 5, 2012
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 before using. This hopefully reflects a trend of physicians being more engaged in delivering only needed care.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Physicians
Knowledge and Health Behavior
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
A new study from the National Bureau of Economics finds that greater levels of education are associated with better health behaviors, without regard to specific knowledge of health risks or to a person’s native level of intelligence. Better educational attainment may in turn reflect family circumstances.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers
2012 Potpourri XI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, March 30, 2012
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 the last 60 years in health economics and the value of teledermatology.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Medicare, Physicians, Telemedicine, Workplace
Surrogate Decision-makers and End-of-Life Care
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
End-of-life care accounts for a large fraction of health spending. Often decisions regarding such care are made by surrogates and new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest that analytical biases lead these surrogates to misinterpret information provided by physicians.
2012 Potpourri X
by Kevin Roche on Sunday, March 25, 2012
Spring is in the air but take a few minutes to refresh with our latest Potpourri, which includes the Congressional Budget Office’s latest health reform projections, ER use by those with Medicaid or private insurance coverage, the effect of selective outcomes reporting in research, an AonHewitt survey of employers on exchange use, another CBO report on employer incentives for use of TriCare and physician costs to comply with quality mandates.
Tags: Care Management, Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Employers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Exchanges, Medicaid, Physicians
Useful Consumer Health Reporting
by Kevin Roche on Monday, March 19, 2012
Can all the public reporting on provider quality and cost performance actually be used by consumers to make good choices for their health care services? That is the question explored in a Health Affairs study and the research gives a positive answer.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, Providers
2012 Potpourri IX
by Kevin Roche on Friday, March 9, 2012
Another outstanding collection of summaries from the health research literature, including this week, physicians’ difficulty in understanding the benefits of screening tests, physicians’ feelings about health information technology, AARP’s latest report on prices paid by seniors for commonly used drugs, the real cost of health reform, variation in outcomes and costs of knee replacements and shared decision-making in two common clinical situations.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Elder Care, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, HIT, Physicians, Wellness and Prevention
Well-Being and Health Care Use
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Wellness programs are popular among employers and payers because of a perception that they can reduce health care spending, at least in the long run. A new study published in the Population Health Management journal tests whether such programs can lead to an enhanced sense of overall well-being among particpants.
2012 Potpourri VIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, March 2, 2012
Its March and spring nears; our Potpourri blooms with nuggets of health care information, including comparative regulation of medical devices in the US and Europe, do physicians always truthful with patients, CMS’ oversight of home health care agencies, the validity of a CMS’ measure of ER scanning, and patient-centered care.
Tags: Consumers, Devices, FDA, Health Care Quality, HomeCare, Medicare, Pay For Performance, Physicians
Price Transparency and Health Spending
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
According to a new report from Thomson Reuters, $36 billion a year could be saved in health care spending if provider prices were more transparent to consumers. There is a little faulty reasoning in the report, but there is no doubt that it is extremely difficult for consumers to find, understand and compare the price of health care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs
The Web of Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
A study on colorectal screening for women compared the effect of a web-based intervention and a print intervention. The most interesting finding, however, relates to how often people signed on to the website versus how often they said they did.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Wellness and Prevention
2011 Potpourri XXXXIX
by Kevin Roche on Friday, December 23, 2011
Our penultimate Potpourri delivers the quality you are accustomed to (for good or bad), including presents of health information on the Medicare physician payment method, telemonitoring results in the UK, the effect of eprescribing on fill rates, issues relating to use of health information technology in the home, the effect of social network on health behavior and whether imaging results actually influence decision-making or outcomes. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, HIT, HomeCare, Medicare, Physicians, Telemedicine, Wellness and Prevention
2011 Potpourri XXXXVII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, December 9, 2011
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 physicians after a hospital discharge, consumers expectations regarding health insurance and early experience with bundled payments.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance, HIT, Hospital, Physicians, Readmissions
Obesity and Weight Management Interventions
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Obesity is often fingered as a leading cause of health care spending and health spending growth. It also causes significant personal discomfort to those who are overweight. A pair of articles in the NEJM describe the outcomes of interventions to help patients lose weight.
Tags: Care Management, Chronic Disease, Consumers, Providers, Wellness and Prevention
Consumers and the Search for Health Information
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The most recent survey by the Center for Studying Health System Change shows not just plateauing, but an actual decline in consumers health information-seeking behavior, across all consumers. It is unclear what may be responsible for this decrease.
What Works in Financial Incentives
by Kevin Roche on Monday, December 5, 2011
Both providers and consumers are increasingly subjected to positive and negative inducements to behave in certain ways. An article in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine explores some possible behavioral and ethical rules for the design of patient-oriented incentive programs.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Incentives
Medicare Cost-Sharing
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, December 1, 2011
The Kaiser Foundation looks at proposals to revamp Medicare’s cost-sharing design, including possible changes to Medigap benefits, finding that changes could save billions for the program and reduce costs for many beneficiaries.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Medicare
Trends in Patient Satisfaction
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, November 30, 2011
A Press Ganey report describes trends in patient satisfaction for hospitals, outpatient departments, emergency rooms, physicians and home care and lists top priorities for patients in improving their experience of care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, Patient Satisfaction, Providers
Retail Clinic Trends
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 28, 2011
A new report by Rand Corp. researchers published in the American Journal of Managed Care finds rapid growth in the use of retail clinics and identifies some of the factors associated with their use.
The Uninsured and the Price of Insurance
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 22, 2011
How many people will enroll in the coverage offered via the reform law in 2014 either in Medicaid or commercial coverage? A new paper based on survey work suggests it will be a very high number of the uninsured, but there are several flaws in the reasoning and data.
2011 Potpourri XXXXIV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, November 11, 2011
The cold is approaching so curl up on the sofa and enjoy the warmth of our Potpourri, this week featuring results from a pay-for-performance program, the effect of the health insurance tax on premiums and employment, the evidence for a stroke treatment, collaborative care for heart disease and physicians views on their practices and health information tools.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Evidence-based care, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Medical Care, Pay For Performance, Physicians
Cost-Shifting and Care
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Research reported in Health Affairs examines the Mayo Clinic’s experience after increasing cost-sharing for its employees. Reductions in the use of many discretionary services seem to have been sustained over a multi-year period, leading to overall spending restraint.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance
GAO on Price Transparency
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 7, 2011
A significant trend affecting all of health care in the last decade is consumerism, specifically the effort to engage consumers in managing their health and health care and to make care more patient-centered. A new report from GAO shows how hard these efforts can be when data, in this case data on provider prices, is hard to obtain and give to consumers.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, HIT, Providers
Americans’ View of Health System
by Kevin Roche on Monday, October 17, 2011
An EBRI survey reveals current attitudes by Americans regarding the health system, their health care coverage, how they access care and reflects serious concerns by many Americans about whether the reform law will make the system, better or worse.
Shared Decision Making
by Kevin Roche on Monday, October 10, 2011
A new paper discusses the state of shared decision-making, illuminating progress and barriers to use by patients and providers. This approach results in higher-quality care, because it is consistent with patient values and with truly informed patient consent and it may also help reduce spending.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Physicians, shared decision-making
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey Part III
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The final look at the Kaiser employer health benefit survey examines findings on prescription drug coverage, wellness programs, retiree health plans, funding mechanisms and the effect of health care reform.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey II
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The second part of our review of the Kaiser employer health benefits survey discusses employee contributions to premiums and employee cost-sharing trends, along with developments in high-deductible plans with savings accounts.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
Kaiser Health Insurance Survey I
by Kevin Roche on Monday, October 3, 2011
The annual Kaiser Foundation report on employment-based health coverage finds a rapid growth in per person and per family costs in 2009, but relative stability in the number of persons who have access to health insurance at the workplace. High-deductible plans continue to show rapid enrollment increases.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XXXVIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 30, 2011
We enter the year’s home stretch with a great Potpourri, focusing on comparison friction in Part D plan shopping, a Harris poll on health-related internet use, the effect of aging populations on health costs, creation of a data repository by major insurers, Mercer’s survey of employers on 2012 expected health benefit costs and AHRQ’s site on unintended EHR consequences.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, EHRs, Health Care Costs, HIT
Consumerism and Employer-Provided Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, September 29, 2011
A new Rand report explores the use of health information technology to assist consumers in managing their health and making decisions about health care coverage. As health care coverage changes, these tools are more important, but their utility is unproven.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, HIT
Search Costs in the Health Insurance Market
by Kevin Roche on Monday, September 12, 2011
A new paper from the National Bureau of Economics focuses on whether there are aspects of the health insurance market that add to premiums by creating significant inefficiencies in finding the best policy and whether a public insurance option may reduce those inefficiencies.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, HIT
Research on Health Risk Assessments
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, September 8, 2011
An Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality technology assessment examines health risk assessment tools, finding that while there are a number of studies, the overall quality is poor and the results provide little guidance for understand if and how HRAs may improve health outcomes.
Tags: Consumers, health risk assessments
Medical Homes
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The medical home concept lumbers on, sometimes mixed in with the accountable care organization notion. The current status of the concept and issues affecting its ultimate impact are assessed in a new report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Medical Care, Physicians
2011 Potpourri XXXIV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 2, 2011
A dazzling review of recent research and other health related nuggets is presented in this latest Potpourri, including potential problems with evidence-based medicine, physician dilemmas in controlling cost, workers’ compensation medical costs, reducing hospital infections, improving heart attack care and the growth of CDHPs.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Insurance, Hospital, Medical Care, Physicians, Workplace
Having Many Medicare Advantage Choices Has Its Disadvantages
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, September 1, 2011
The application of theories of consumer buying behavior to Medicare Advantage indicates that having too many plan or benefit design choices may create harder decision-making for seniors, especially those with cognitive difficulties.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance, Medicare
Shared Decision Making
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, August 25, 2011
A report from The King’s Fund articulates the benefits of shared decision-making and provides a detailed roadmap for how to effectively implement its use more widely. A great deal of work on creating decision aids and training providers needs to be done.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, decision-making
Socioeconomic Status and Health
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, August 23, 2011
It is often observed that more financially well-off persons tend to have better health than their poorer counterparts. Teasing out whether this is correlation or causality that runs in one direction or the other has been difficult. A new NBER paper attempts to answer this question.
Tags: Consumers, demographics and health
Towers Watson, NBGH Survey on Value in Health Spending
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health released their latest Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health, which delineates actions being taken by many employers to try to limit health spending, while ensuring that employees receive good quality care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XXX
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 5, 2011
This week’s Potpourri features dropped malpractice claims, the quality benefits of EHRs, improper Medicare payments, health insurer customer satisfaction, the utilization and cost effects of using hospitalists, and determining if a patient has decision-making capacity.
Tags: Consumers, EHRs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance, HITECH, Hospital, Malpractice, Medicare, Physicians
Deloitte Consumer Surveys
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Deloitte issues the results of a global and a United States consumer survey on perceptions of health and health care system. Most Americans have a gloomy outlook, but so do the citizens of most of the surveyed countries.
Tags: Consumers, Government, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality
2011 Potpourri XXVI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 1, 2011
Fireworks galore for the Fourth of July Potpourri, including dynamite excerpts on the effects of parent caregiving on caregivers’ financial status; health insurance exchanges; physician compensation; provider performance data gathering and use; hospital market concentration; use of HIT in nursing homes and teen use of health websites.
Tags: Consumers, Elder Care, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, Hospital, Meaningful Use, Pay For Performance, Physicians, Telemedicine
2011 Potpourri XXV
by Kevin Roche on Friday, June 24, 2011
Summer waxes but no heat-induced torpor can stop us from producing our Potpourri of health snapshots, including the health care and health care coverage of young adults; malpractice incidence; Massachusetts health spending; online provider ratings; access to specialty care for children in public programs and options for dealing with the SGR mess.
Tags: Access, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Malpractice, Medicaid, Medicare, Physicians
Health Literacy
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Health literacy is the degree to which a patient can understand and use health-related information to help make decisions about his or her care. A report from AHRQ reviews the research on the effect of health literacy on outcomes and health.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality
Health Information Exchanges
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Two articles report on research into aspects of health information exchange, a cornerstone reason for expanding provider use of information technology, particularly electronic medical records. Infrastructure for HIE is severely lagging, but consumer support for the idea is fairly strong.
The Effect of Competition on Health Care in England
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
A working paper at the National Bureau of Economics reports on an analysis of the effects of England’s attempt to increase competition between hospitals on quality, finding that hospitals in more competitive markets had higher quality outcomes than those in more concentrated markets, without increasing the cost of care.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance, Hospital
Latest Pew Report on Health Information and the Internet
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Pew Research Center’s latest survey regarding people’s use of the internet and social media for health purposes reveals continued growth. A large number of Americans view the internet as both a source of information and a place to track their own health and share their own experiences.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Telehealth
2011 Potpourri XXI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, May 20, 2011
Once more into the world of health care to find nuggets of useful information, this week including the legality of wellness programs, the switch to ICD-10, pragmatic trials, the status of the workers’ comp industry, consumer health care sentiment, and hospital ER strategies.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Care Costs, HIT, Hospital, Wellness and Prevention, Workplace
2011 Potpourri XIX
by Kevin Roche on Friday, May 6, 2011
Another edition of the Potpourri focuses on CMS and telemedicine, informal caregiver stress, wellness program results, emergency room visits, happiness and suicide, and sources for consumer health information.
Tags: Consumers, Elder Care, Physicians, Telemedicine, Wellness and Prevention
Health Literacy and Outcomes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Research published in JAMA examines the extent to which patients’ health literacy is associated with heart failure outcomes, finding a connection in the case of all-cause mortality, but not with hospitalizations.
Physicians’ Treatment Recommendations
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 18, 2011
New research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that doctors prescribe different treatments for patients than they would choose for themselves when one choice involves potentially harmful adverse effects but a possibility of a better outcome.
Tags: Consumers, Medical Care, Physicians
2011 Potpourri XVI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 15, 2011
Happy Easter and welcome to our spring kickoff potpourri, complete with a survey on technology use by consumers; brand drug pricing; how to get individuals to purchase health coverage; views of the Massachusetts reforms; hospital pay-for-performance and use of PHRs.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, Hospital, Pay For Performance
Gaming and Health
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 11, 2011
An article in JAMA discusses the use of gaming technology to aid in health goals, reviewing the research and discussing potential benefits and risks.
Tags: Consumers, Gaming, Wellness and Prevention
Hidden Costs of Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, March 24, 2011
A Deloitte report focuses on health spending which may not be captured in official accounts, finding over $360 billion of it, all borne by consumers, but it is not clear that the fact that consumers are responsible for this spending is a bad thing.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs
Lessons from German Disease Management Programs
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 23, 2011
McKinsey publishes an article on disease management, focusing on overseas experience and finding that properly designed and managed programs can lower costs, improve outcomes and increase patient satisfaction.
Tags: Consumers, Disease Management, Providers
Price Transparency’s Consequences
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Is it always better for providers of health care to have to fully disclose their actual charges to various payers? A NEJM Perspective suggests that it may not be and that other forms of disclosure may be more useful.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Hospital
2011 Potpourri XI
by Kevin Roche on Friday, March 11, 2011
Another in our weekly series of health care nuggets, with this week’s Potpourri featuring Medicare beneficiaries and physician supply, the FDA’s position on certain device software, a wellness survey, the AMA’s stance on genetic testing, marketing of drugs, and an integrated disability and health care program.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, FDA, Genomics, Health Care Quality, Medicare, Mobile, Physicians, Wellness and Prevention
Socioeconomic Status and Health
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 9, 2011
A study comparing French and British populations examines the link between socioeconomic status and mortality, finding that cultural differences may result in a different causative relationship in different countries.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality
End-of-Life Expenditures
by Kevin Roche on Monday, March 7, 2011
A new report looks at the out-of-pocket health spending in the last year of life for Medicare beneficiaries. The spending is not only large but highly variable and undoubtedly puts a significant financial strain on most of these people.
Tags: Consumers, Elder Care, Health Care Costs
Latest Dartmouth Atlas Work
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, March 3, 2011
The latest Dartmouth Atlas work looks at variation in elective surgery rates in the context of patient involvement in decision-making. The report highlights differences in treatment for a number of common conditions and provides good advice for patients.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Medicare, Physicians
Health Status, Income and Use of Services in Canada
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, February 24, 2011
The leading reason advocates use for demanding universal coverage is that it will improve health and health outcomes for lower socioeconomic groups. New research from Canada indicates that this is not likely to be true.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance
Towers Watson Survey on Employee Engagement in Health
by Kevin Roche on Monday, February 21, 2011
A Towers Watson survey describes employee attitudes toward wellness programs and health engagement, with a surprising finding of declines in health as a priority and involvement in programs.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Health Insurance, Wellness and Prevention
2011 Potpourri VIII
by Kevin Roche on Friday, February 18, 2011
The year wears on, winter hopefully draws to a close, and our Potpourri provides nutritious sustenance, this week featuring comparative effectiveness research and personalized medicine, two surveys on hospital progress in implementing EHRs, a patient-centered vision of HIT, the validity of care guidelines, and the use of clinical decision support to control inappropriate imaging.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Consumers, Health Care Quality, HIT, Hospital, Medical Care, Personalized Medicine
Physician Views of PHRs
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, February 17, 2011
Personal health records are electronic medical records collected or maintained by patients. Health Affairs reports on a survey of physicians regarding their views on these records, finding interest in having access to the information but almost no current use.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Physicians
Research on Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, February 16, 2011
One interesting aspect of personalized medicine is the widespread ability of consumers to purchase somewhat inexpensive genome wide scanning for disease risk. New research evaluating the potential benefits or harms of these DTC tests finds not much impact either way.
Tags: Consumers, Personalized Medicine
Boomers and Health Technology
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The newly aging boomer generation is posited to be more receptive to use of a multiplicity of technologies in health care, with the end goal of being more responsible for their health and health care. A new report explores opportunities which arise as boomers age.
Tags: Consumers, Elder Care, HIT, Telemedicine
2011 Potpourri V
by Kevin Roche on Friday, January 28, 2011
On we go, wading through piles of research to arm you with the most relevant snatches of data, this week featuring geographic variation in the quality of drug prescribing; use of Facebook communities for health purposes; physicians’ hourly wages; medication adherence programs; surgical safety improvement; and using survey data to assess patient satisfaction.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Malpractice, Medical Care, Pay For Performance, Physicians, Telemedicine
Cost-Sharing and Outcomes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Cost-sharing by consumers is an issue of the greatest importance in an era of increasing premium share, high deductibles, and coinsurance. A new report looks at the potential health consequences but is not without its biases.
2011 Potpourri II
by Kevin Roche on Friday, January 7, 2011
Off we go into 2011, with more snippets of health developments including the OIG’s 2011 work plan; an international survey of internet usage for health purposes, physicians’ understanding of patients’ belief systems, medical tourism and care management for persons with multiple chronic conditions.
Tags: Chronic Disease, Consumers, Government, HIT, Medical Tourism, Physicians
Medication Adherence Methods
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, January 6, 2011
The high prevalence of medications as the primary method of treatment especially for chronic diseases has led to focus on ensuring that patients take the drugs that are prescribed for them. A review article examines the outcome of research on various intervention programs to encourage adherence.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality
Christmas Potpourri
by Kevin Roche on Friday, December 24, 2010
A very happy and relaxing Christmas Eve and Day to all our readers. To aid in the pursuit of that happiness and relaxation we offer up our scraps of enlightenment, this week covering EHR impact on productivity, e-prescribing systems, health insurance rate reviews, not-for-profit hospital executive compensation, Oregon’s state health plan and use of placebos to improve health.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, HIT, Hospital, Meaningful Use, Medicaid, Physicians
2010 Potpourri XLIV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, December 18, 2010
Another week, another Potpourri, this one detailing items including high deductible insurance and delay of care; another study looking at HDHP and well-child care; a quality comparison of Medicare Advantage and fee-for-service; video games to improve health and CMS’ report on several quality demonstrations.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Health Care Quality, HIT, Medicare
Workplace Clinics Spread
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A new report sponsored by a unit of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation describes the state of workplace clinics and interviews a number of participants to identify trends, challenges and success factors.
Tags: Consumers, Medical Care, Workplace
Abandoned Prescriptions
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Prescriptions written by doctors and transmitted to pharmacies are not always picked up by patients. New research examines the factors that appear to be linked to, if not causative of, such prescription abandonment.
Tags: Consumers, Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality
EBRI Report on Consumer Engagement
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, December 7, 2010
EBRI released results of its sixth annual survey on consumer engagement in health care, finding a steady increase in CDHP enrollment and continued trends of more cost-conscious and wellness-oriented behaviors among persons in those plans.
New Evidence on Wellness Value
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Doubt continues to exist about whether wellness and prevention have net short or long-term cost savings. A new study indicates that a well-designed, comprehensive health program can save money, at least in the near term, and may lower longer term cost trajectories.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Wellness and Prevention
MedPAC on Retainer Medicine
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 29, 2010
Retainer-based medicine, in which patients pay physicians a flat periodic fee to cover a package of basic medical services, often referred to as a “concierge” practice, is reviewed in a MedPac report, to ascertain if has or might have a deleterious effect on access or costs for Medicare patients.
Tags: Consumers, Medicare, Physicians
Philips Index of Global Well-being
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, November 18, 2010
Phillips releases its first in a projected series of reports on a global health and well-being index. The trans-country survey reflects commonalities and divergence around the world on levels of satisfaction and concern regarding a number of health and life issues.
Tags: Consumers
TowersWatson Employee Survey
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 15, 2010
A Towers Watson survey examined employees perspectives on their health plans. High cost sharing appears to be a major concern, but many employees are not taking proactive steps to help reduce those costs.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance
Telecare for Arthritis
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, November 11, 2010
Studies continue to show the value of telecommunications technology in lowering the cost of managing chronic disease while improving outcomes. A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports on telephonic support for self-management of osteoarthritis.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Telemedicine
Obesity Costs
by Kevin Roche on Friday, November 5, 2010
A new report from the National Bureau of Economics adds to the evidence that obesity is related to substantial health expenditures, but primarily concentrated in a few individuals.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Medical Care
Pew Mobile Health Survey
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 2, 2010
The Pew Internet project puts out its latest survey on mobile technology being used for health purposes. The survey indicates growing use of health apps and health information search capabilities, but with variable presence among demographic groups.
Home Is Where the Care Is
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, October 28, 2010
The complexity and rate of change in health care sometimes makes spotting major trends difficult. One appears to be growth of home-based diagnostic and therapeutic care. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine discusses drivers for this trend.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, HomeCare, Telemedicine
Home Testing of Blood Thinning Medication
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 22, 2010
Research reported in the NEJM looked at differences in quality of care for patients who either tested themselves at home or were tested in a clinic to guide the administration of warfarin, a blood thinning drug. The results indicate home testing is as good as clinic testing.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, HomeCare
Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, October 7, 2010
There has been a major push to expand measurement of provider quality, as defined by process of care and outcomes. A study suggests that having good quality doesn’t necessarily mean patients will be more satisfied.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, Providers
Can Online Care Reduce Other Visits
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Enthusiasm abounds regarding new forms of physician encounters, such as phone, email and video visits. A pilot study from the Mayo Clinic suggests that such visits may reduce in-person encounters and save money.
Tags: Consumers, Physicians, Telemedicine
Primary Care Cost and Quality
by Kevin Roche on Monday, September 27, 2010
The Dartmouth Atlas researches whether more primary care necessarily leads to better quality of care. The answer appears to be usually not, but the explanation for this result is complex and it may not be as simple as cause and effect.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Quality, Medicare, Physicians
Trustworthiness of Online Health Information
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Consumers increasingly look for medical information and advice on the internet. Research, including a recent study relating to childhood health issues, suggests that many times the data given can be erroneous.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Medical Care
CBO on Obesity
by Kevin Roche on Monday, September 20, 2010
Obesity has been fingered as one of the villains of health care cost increases. A CBO analysis verifies that obese persons appear to have significantly higher annual health care costs compared to non-obese persons.
Tags: Care Management, Chronic Disease, Consumers, Health Care Costs
Accessing Acute Care and Avoiding the ER
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 17, 2010
Health Affairs publishes several studies addressing inappropriate use of the emergency room, finding that many visits could be dealt with in other settings, but that higher copays may not deter inappropriate use.
Tags: Access, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Hospital
2010 Potpourri XXXIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, September 11, 2010
Fall is a lovely time of year and what could be better than relaxing with a Potpourri, featuring health insurance increases, the true costs of EHRs, hospital pay-for-performance programs and quality, the impact of social networks on health behavior, and unenrolled Medicaid-eligible children.
Tags: Consumers, Government, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, HIT, Hospital, Medicaid, Pay For Performance, Workplace
Deloitte Global Health Consumer Survey
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 10, 2010
Deloitte’s annual survey of consumers in six countries on health care issues provides some interesting insights on the citizens’ health behaviors, concerns and perceptions of their health system.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs
Mobile Health and Self Care
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Deloitte puts out an Issue Brief touting the mobile personal health record as a key to reducing costs, primarily by better chronic condition management. There are a lot of barriers from vision to reality.
Tags: Consumers, Medical Care, Wireless
2010 Potpourri XXVIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, August 7, 2010
Summer begins to wane, but not our Potpourris. Another one full of useful data, including health insurance costs for 2011, a new telehealth joint venture, use of kiosks in physician offices, prostate cancer screening, health care use cutbacks, teledermatology and sharing of physician notes with patients.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Monitoring, Physicians, Telemedicine, Wellness and Prevention
Health Literacy
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A key premise of the consumer-directed health movement and a number of other health reform concepts is that patients can understand health information and choices and make good decisions. An AHRQ report gives reason to question that notion.
Encouraging People to Get Necessary Services
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 8, 2010
Preventive measures can help patients delay or prevent illness or can lead to early detection and usually better outcomes. Unfortunately many patients fail to take even the most basic preventive steps. A new study suggests just how difficult it is to change that behavior.
Big Effort Needed to Create Informed and Engaged Patients
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 8, 2010
One theory for improving the health care system is to rely on more-informed and engaged consumers to help improve decision-making about treatment options. A recent Health Affairs article suggests there is a long way to go on this goal.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs, Medical Care
Living Longer and Paying More for Health
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Boston College researchers have examined the expected remaining lifetime health costs for an average person at various ages and linked that expected spending to health status, finding that healthy people will actually end up spending more.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs
2010 Potpourri XVIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, May 22, 2010
Yet another in our long series of weekend catchup on miscellaneous health care items that we missed in earlier commentaries, including telemedicine, smoking bans, engagement in wellness efforts, the cost of high-risk pools, telemedicine and getting results in health improvement programs.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Reform, HIT, Telemedicine, Wellness and Prevention
Survey of Consumers and HIT
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The California HealthCare Foundation surveys consumers to ascertain attitudes toward health information technology. The results suggest that there is a high level of interest in using HIT but that few people either have access to core applications or have taken advantage of what is available.
Smartphones and Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Friday, May 14, 2010
The California HealthCare Foundation put out a study on consumers’ and providers’ use of smartphones in regard to health care. The study has a number of useful statistics and identifies potential trends.
Tags: Consumers, Telemedicine
2010 Potpourri XIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, April 17, 2010
More exotic gleamings from the world of health care, including self-directed care, telemedicine, point-of-care diagnostics, HCA, doctor-patient interactions and socio-economic factors in health outcomes.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Diagnostics, Health Care Quality, Physicians, Telemedicine
Employee Benefit Trends
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 16, 2010
MetLife publishes its annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, revealing that employers are concerned with cost control and employee retention and workers value their benefits and are particularly concerned about retirement.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance, Workplace
2010 Potpourri XI
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, April 3, 2010
This week’s collection includes obesity, clinical trials results, how hospitals make money from physicians, strategic implications of reform, what reform is likely to do to young people’s insurance premiums and patents on genes. Enjoy!
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Hospital, Physicians
Socio-Economic Status and Health Behaviors
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, April 1, 2010
What is the link, if any, between socio-economic status, health behaviors and health status? Researchers have theorized and pondered whether there is correlation or causation and in which direction. A new study from England provides some additional thoughts on the topic.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Costs
Working Employees and Caring for an Ill Parent
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 31, 2010
As people live longer, and as there are more families with both spouses working, more employees are having concerns about managing the care of an ill parent. A MetLife study examines some of the issues.
Tags: Consumers, Medical Care
How Do Physicians Say “No” to Patients
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, March 11, 2010
Physicians control almost all the utilization and spending in health care. Patients often ask or even demand some health services, which they often don’t need or which are not appropriate for the patient. Research looks at how physicians can persuade patients they don’t need a service or product.
Tags: Consumers, Medical Care, Physicians
2010 Potpourri V
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, February 13, 2010
One more Saturday….morning. And another potpourri of health care news. This one includes health information technology, consumer directed health plans, guidelines, support group functioning, end-of-life care and telemedicine.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, End-of-Life Care, HIT, Pay For Performance, Telemedicine
Harris Poll on Mobile Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A Harris poll looks at Americans’ attitudes toward mobile healthcare and finds that those who use health care the most are also the most disengaged from these new technologies.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Medical Care, Telemedicine
The Society for Participatory Medicine
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Society for Participatory Medicine is starting a journal focused on shared decision making and other aspects of patient engagement in their medical care.
Brookings Paints New Health System
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 16, 2009
Brookings forsees a health system which is organized around consumers’ management of their own care, with extensive use of mobile and telehealth technologies, and reimbursement and incentives to encourage widespread adoption of this consumer-centered approach.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Medical Care, Telemedicine
Consumers’ View of Electronic Health Records
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 14, 2009
AHRQ has released a survey of consumer attitudes about electronic health records and health IT. The people in these focus groups were less enthusiastic about the subject than many experts are.
Genetic Testing Needs Certainty to Be Accepted
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 9, 2009
Several geneticists examine DTC genotyping and recommend some improvements.
Tags: Consumers, Genomics, Medical Care, Personalized Medicine
Patients’ Decision-Making
by Kevin Roche on Monday, September 21, 2009
New research reveals complex aspects of patients’ decision-making, depending on how information is presented.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Medical Care, Patients
Home Medical Testing and the Self-Care Movement
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Patients are increasingly involved in the management of their own health.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Medical Care, Patients
Patients Asked to Pay More
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, August 6, 2009
Patients are responsible for an increasing share of their medical expenses, which has increased provider bad debt and collection expense. In response, providers are asking to be paid at the time of service.
Patient Involvement Is A Key to Real Reform
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Research and experience continues to confirm the value, in both cost savings and patient satisfaction, of extensive patient involvement in important health decisions.
Tags: Care Management, Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Medical Care
Obesity, Obesity
by Kevin Roche on Monday, August 3, 2009
A new study shows increasing amounts of US health care spending are caused by obesity.
Tags: Chronic Disease, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Wellness and Prevention
More CDH Evidence
by Kevin Roche on Monday, July 27, 2009
A new study provides more evidence on the effects of high deductible health coverage.
Individual Health Responsibility
by Kevin Roche on Monday, July 27, 2009
Any health reform needs to ensure that there are adequate incentives to motivate individuals to take responsibility for lifestyle decisions that affect health.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, Incentives, Wellness and Prevention
Cost Sharing and Health Outcomes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Patient cost sharing reduces utilization, but appears to limit use of appropriate as well as inappropriate care.
Tags: Consumers, Government, Health Care Costs, Incentives
Poll Results on Paying for Health Reform
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 2, 2009
A recent Kaiser Foundation data note looks at attitudes on paying for health reform.
Tags: Consumers, Government, Health Care Reform
Shared Decision Making
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Shared decision-making for preference-sensitive conditions has the potential to improve quality and control spending. States are exploring required use of the technique and it should be considered in federal reform efforts.
Tags: Care Management, Consumers, Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Health Insurance
Once Again, Health Care Change is Hard
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, June 18, 2009
Many unions and some disease advocacy groups are objecting to the wellness and prevention provisions proposed in some health reform measures. In a USA Today article, the difficulties of our “system” once again point out the impediments to improvement.
Tags: Consumers, Health Insurance, Incentives, Wellness and Prevention
More on Prevention’s Cost Savings
by Kevin Roche on Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Wall Street Journal article summarized some research results regarding the potential cost savings of prevention and wellness efforts, particularly for persons with chronic diseases. The overall conclusion is that not much money is likely to be saved by such methods, primarily because the cost of these programs when applied to a large population tends to outweigh the health care cost savings which eventually accrue.
Tags: Chronic Disease, Consumers, Disease Management, Medical Care, Wellness and Prevention
“Cheap” Personal DNA Sequencing
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, June 11, 2009
Illumina has announced that for $48,000 a consumer can have their entire DNA sequenced
Tags: Consumers, Genomics, Medical Care, Personalized Medicine
ShowHide Headlines
The average American spends twice as much time before buying a TV as they do looking for a doctor
December’s survey marks a steeper first-year fall for this president than his recent predecessors