Posts Tagged “Hospital”
ShowHide CommentaryCompetition Leads to Lower Hospital Costs
by Kevin Roche on Friday, February 26, 2010
Research indicates that commercial health insurance, while it has geographic variation in spending, does not vary in the same way as Medicare. A primary factor explaining private health plan geographic spending variation appears to be the state of competition for hospital services in different locales.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Hospital, Medicare
Massachusetts Report on Provider Pricing Impact
by Kevin Roche on Monday, February 1, 2010
The Massachusetts Attorney General investigates and discovers that hospitals and some physicians have market power and consequently are able to demand high payments and those payments are the main cause of increases in the cost of health insurance, not utilization increases.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital, Physicians
Variations in Hospital Payments in One State
by Kevin Roche on Friday, January 29, 2010
Rhode Island released a report on payments to hospitals from various sources and looked at factors accounting for significant differences in payment levels. The variation is likely entirely due to hospital bargaining power by large systems, which in turn is driving health insurance premium increases.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital
Hospital Quality Improvement
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Joint Commissions issued a report showing improvement in American hospitals’ quality scores. A large percent of all hospitals submitted information on several care areas, most demonstrating greater compliance with evidence-based standards. It is not clear how connected this performance is with actual health outcomes.
Tags: Hospital
AHA Information On Underpayments and Uncompensated Care
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The American Hospital Association has released updated information on the amount of uncompensated care delivered by community hospitals and on the degree of underpayment of costs by Medicare and Medicaid.
Tags: Hospital
Report Cards Get a Failing Grade
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A study suggests that hospital report cards on cardiac care in Canada did not result in significant performance improvement. Even less clear is whether they lead to better health outcomes.
Tags: Hospital, Pay For Performance
Study Says Hospital EMRs Don’t Save Money
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Researchers from Harvard University find that hospitals with more extensive use of electronic records have neither lower costs or better quality, but caution should be used as these researchers have a specific reform viewpoint.
Hospitals Are Surviving the Recession
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 16, 2009
Thomson Reuters and the AHA release updated reports on hospitals, Thomson showing that their revenues and profits are improving, as are credit availability and investment portfolios, while the AHA continues to paint a fairly dire picture.
Tags: Hospital
More Variation in Spending Research
by Kevin Roche on Monday, October 19, 2009
A study reported in Circulation indicates that California teaching hospitals that utilize more resources in treating heart failure had lower rates of mortality. The study results call into question the methods and findings of some Dartmouth Atlas research. Another report looks at supply and variation in MRI usage.
Tags: Care Management, Health Care Costs, Hospital, Medical Care, Providers
The Advantage of Medicare Advantage
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 25, 2009
AHIP presents evidence on the value of Medicare Advantage plans in delivering more efficient and effective care.
Tags: Government, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, Hospital
Maryland’s Approach to Hospital Pricing
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 18, 2009
A WSJ articles reports on Maryland’s experience with hospital price controls.
Looking at Hospital Input Costs
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 14, 2009
One relatively unexplored method for reducing health spending is lowering providers’ input costs. A New York Times article examines one category of hospital costs.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital, Providers
Hospital Trade Association Survey Results
by Kevin Roche on Friday, July 24, 2009
HFMA has released its latest Financila Pulse, describing hospitals’ expectations regarding revenue and other financial results.
Tags: Hospital, Medical Care
Room for Improvement in Preventing Hospital Admissions
by Kevin Roche on Friday, May 29, 2009
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (“AHRQ”) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project released a report in April 2009 outlining hospitalizations that might have been preventable had the patients been receiving appropriate ambulatory care.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital, Medical Care
Cost/Quality Relationship Unclear
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, May 27, 2009
A study reported in Health Affairs, vol. 28, page 897 (May/June 2009), provides a further input to the question of the relationship, if any, between costs and quality in health care.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Care Quality, Hospital, Medical Care, Medicare
An Opportunity for Birthing Quality and Cost Improvement
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Los Angeles Times ran an article on May 17, 2009, regarding Cesarean births. Birth services are a microcosm of the problems in the broader health system.
Tags: Government, Health Care Costs, Hospital
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