Posts Tagged “Hospital”
ShowHide 3rd Party PapersUrban Institute: How will hospitals be affected by health care reform?
Archives of Internal Medicine: Improving follow-up appointments is often considered one of the key strategies for reducing costly hospital readmissions, but a new study suggests that better discharge processes don’t reduce 30-day readmission rates at all.
CA Health Care Almanac: California Hospital Facts and Figures
ShowHide Commentary
Virtual Hospital Wards
by Kevin Roche on Friday, September 3, 2010
A Commonwealth Foundation Brief describes a “virtual ward” model developed in Great Britain to minimize hospitalizations for chronic disease patients. Early results are encouraging and similar models are being tried in the United States.
Tags: Chronic Disease, Hospital, Medical Care, Telemedicine
2010 Potpourri XXXI
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, August 28, 2010
Summer nears an end, but not our Potpourris. This one includes the costs of malpractice, an innovative provider error disclosure program, employer wellness paybacks, blood pressure medication issues, the cost of new technologies, provider pricing power and the mental health of Californians.
Tags: Care Management, Health Care Costs, Hospital, Malpractice, Personalized Medicine, Wellness and Prevention
Emergency Room Use
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, August 24, 2010
A study discusses trends in the use of emergency rooms. Medicaid beneficiaries are the vast majority of the increase in utilization, which may reflect poor access to primary care or inappropriate health care seeking behavior.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital, Medicaid, Medical Care
More on EHR Benefits
by Kevin Roche on Monday, August 23, 2010
New research adds more caution to the promotion of great benefits from electronic medical records. The researchers found that in hospitals, costs actually increased and quality worsened by some measures, although improving by others.
2010 Potpourri XXX
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, August 21, 2010
Another selection of medical delights, including a telemedicine study that didn’t show improved outcomes, a telemedicine study that demonstrated the value of teleaudiology, end-of-life care, physician quality measurement, hospital quality measurement, and telemedicine for CHF patients.
Tags: Health Care Quality, Hospital, Medical Care, Physicians, Telemedicine
Massachusetts Reports
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Although its reform effort appears to have gone amok, largely for cost reasons, the state of Massachusetts is producing a lot of useful data and research on medical service delivery, including three recent ones on avoidable emergency room and hospital use and the state of primary care services.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Hospital, Physicians
2010 Potpourri XXV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, July 17, 2010
Another week, another potpourri, this time with items on workers’ compensation drug spending, benefit consulting firm mergers, hospital readmissions, geographic variation in spending and use of mobile vans to deliver health care.
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Costs, Hospital, M&A, Medical Care, Workers Compensation
2010 Potpourri XXIV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, July 10, 2010
Sitting indoors seeking relief from the summer heat? Here’s a montage of cool and refreshing health care items, including CPOE systems, accountable care organizations, Massachusetts’ reform experience, reducing imaging, and medical management trends.
Tags: Care Management, Government, Health Care Reform, HIT, Hospital, Medical Care
Hospital Pay-for-Performance Programs
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Medicare has an impending value-based purchasing program for hospitals. Payments would be based on performance against quality standards. Some hospitals ability to improve performance may be limited by the economic and workforce characteristics of their location, according to new research.
Tags: Hospital, Medicare, Pay For Performance
Services With Increasing Costs
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Where does all that health spending go and what areas are incurring some of the largest increases? An AHRQ statistical brief looks at hospital costs from 2001 and 2007 and identifies the ten fastest growing diagnoses by cost in that period.
Better Followup May Not Prevent Hospital Readmissions
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A common perception is that there are too many hospital readmissions which could be prevented with better discharge planning. A new study indicates that scheduling follow-up visits may not help prevent readmissions, most of which are unrelated to the original admisssion in any event.
Tags: Care Management, Hospital
2010 Potpourri XXIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, June 26, 2010
Once more into the breach with the Saturday health care roundup, including medication adherence, monitoring patients’ health status in their homes, Massachusetts’ reform update and insurance costs, hospitals’ economic contribution, hospital cost shifting and consumers’ views on use of health IT.
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, HomeCare, Hospital, Monitoring, Telemedicine
Physician Compensation
by Kevin Roche on Friday, June 11, 2010
An MGMA survey and an article based on the survey provide a look at where physician employment and compensation is headed. Hospitals look to be extending their power and leverage.
Tags: Hospital, Physicians
Heart Failure Hospitalizations
by Kevin Roche on Friday, June 4, 2010
Research reported in JAMA suggests that while lengths of stay and in-hospital deaths for heart failure patients covered by Medicare have fallen, readmissions and out-of-hospital deaths are up. While the authors suggest some cause and effect, that is not likely the case.
Tags: Hospital, Medical Care
Hospital Readmissions
by Kevin Roche on Monday, May 24, 2010
Hospital readmissions are one area of health spending being studied intensively to identify causes and possible solutions to inappropriate or avoidable rehospitalizations. A California agency issued a report on readmissions in that state.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital
Using Technology to Limit Medication Mistakes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Errors in medication are far more common than might be imagined and cause serious adverse events. A NEJM article reports on efforts to use technology to limit such errors in hospitals.
Hospital Charges to the Uninsured
by Kevin Roche on Monday, May 10, 2010
The plight of the uninsured was used as one justification for reform. AHRQ has put out a report on trends in hospitalizations for the uninsured over the last ten years, which highlights some interesting facts.
Tags: Health Insurance, Hospital
Hospital Readmissions
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, May 6, 2010
A study in JAMA explores hospital readmissions for Medicare beneficiaries, finding that there is significant variation in discharge planning and follow-up, and that early attention to care after discharge leads to lower readmissions.
Tags: Hospital, Medical Care
2010 Potpourri XV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, May 1, 2010
The latest in our weekend selection of health news and research developments, including any willing provider laws, emergency room visits, the link between insurance and health outcomes, hospital rankings and rising insurance premiums.
Tags: Health Insurance, Hospital, Medical Care, Providers
Hospital Value
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, April 29, 2010
Milliman, Inc. is a very prominent and capable actuarial firm which does excellent research on health care issues. The firm released a report on high, and low, value hospital regions, focusing on spending as the indicia of value.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital
High Performance Health Systems
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Commonwealth Fund, the Health Research & Educational Trust and the American Hospital Association issued an analysis of what contributes to a high performance hospital system in terms of patient safety and outcomes. Culture is paramount.
Tags: Hospital, Medical Care
2010 Potpourri XIV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, April 24, 2010
Another thrilling collection of health care tidbits; including patient safety, malpractice claims, physician discipline, hospital costs and charges, venture financings, employer health costs and who makes good liars.
Tags: Financings, Health Insurance, Hospital, Malpractice, Physicians
2010 Potpourri XII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, April 10, 2010
The latest collection of health care tidbits, including telemedicine, physician attitudes, medication adherence, retail clinics, physician value to hospitals and CDHPs.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Drugs, Health Insurance, Hospital, Physicians, Telemedicine
Volume and Quality in Hospital Procedures
by Kevin Roche on Monday, April 5, 2010
For some years researchers have examined the link, if any, between the volume of a certain type of procedure or service at a hospital and outcomes. A new study published in NEJM extends that research, finding that at a certain level volume is associated with lower mortality.
Tags: Health Care Reform, Hospital
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
The Massachusetts Debacle
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s final report on what is driving health care cost increases in Massachusetts confirms the preliminary version’s finding that most of the spending rise is due to nothing more than application of raw provider market power to extract high prices from private payers. Another report also examines hospitals’ pricing practices.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Hospital, Physicians
More on Hospital Costs and Pricing
by Kevin Roche on Monday, March 29, 2010
Health Affairs publishes a study with a creative approach to understanding hospital costs, hospital pricing, Medicare payments and market power. The authors’ conclusion is that profitable hospitals have higher expenses because they have more money to spend, and those higher expenses may make them look unprofitable in regard to Medicare payments.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Hospital
Hospital Trends
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, March 25, 2010
Hospitals have increasingly become the hub for medical services in many communities. Trends relating to hospitals are therefore of significant interest. A recent article gives a perspective on some of those trends.
Tags: Hospital
2010 Potpourri X
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, March 20, 2010
More weekend reading, in case spring hasn’t arrived where you are, covering personalized medicine, the OIG’s unheeded recommendations, robot surgery, hospital costs, venture funding and telemedicine.
Tags: Financings, fraud and abuse, Hospital, Personalized Medicine, Telemedicine
2010 Potpourri IX
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, March 13, 2010
One more sampling of health care news, covering provider reaction to the EHR meaningful use rule, telemedicine, people’s perceptions of their health status and insurance coverage and hospital costs and prices.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, HIT, Hospital
Hospital Costs and Quality
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Following up on similar research, an article delves into the relationship between hospital costs and quality, finding inconsistent associations between high cost and better quality. It does not appear that low-cost hospitals have higher readmission rates and greater downstream costs.
Competition 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
ShowHide Headlines