Hospital checklists work. Study: they reduced complications by one-third and in-hospital deaths were cut in half.
One-third of rheumatoid arthritis patients on Medicare do not receive any drug therapy. It gives a whole new meaning to the concept of self help.
Inconsistent data on bloodstream infections may compromise public report cards that rank hospital quality of care. One writer rants about it.
The Affordable Care Act eliminated the donut hole in Medicare Part D drug plans by 2019 – making it easier for seniors to afford needed medications. However, recent research suggests that seniors take too many drugs; not too few:
Voters in Arizona and Oklahoma opt out of the individual mandate in the federal health reform law. Colorado voters stay in.
Primary care doctors worked an average of 53.1 hours per week and earned an average annual income of $187,857 in 2004/05. Income was 48% higher for surgeons, 36% higher for internal medicine and pediatric subspecialties, and 45% higher for clinicians in other specialties.
Why do Medicare patients living in nursing homes go to the hospital so often? Because doctors (and just about everybody else) get paid more when that happens. (HT to Jason Shafrin)
Follow up: 24 percent of all hospitalizations for long‐term care facility residents in 2006 were potentially preventable. (HP to Jason Shafrin)
So who really killed primary care? The idea that a centrally planned system with the right formulas and lots of data could replace the art of practicing medicine; that the human dynamics of market demand and the patient-physician relationship could be ignored. Politicians and mathematicians in ivory towers have placed primary care last in line for respect, resources and prestige—and we all paid an enormous price.
Full op-ed by Richard M. Hannan of BlueCross Blue Shield in The Wall Street Journal.
Tuesday’s election resulted in a resounding setback for the crown jewel of President Obama’s legislative agenda. Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will suffer significant setbacks at the federal and state level. While Congress works towards repeal, states have to choose whether to enable or obstruct ObamaCare. Two states, Arizona and Oklahoma, voted in favor of a proposition that would make the individual health insurance mandate unconstitutional. Newly elected officeholders also have important roles in defeating ObamaCare.
Fred Upton: Over 4,100 pages of regulations have been issued since the ObamaCare was signed into law. A dozen new regulations were not even subject to any kind of public scrutiny before taking effect.
Why do insurers avoid low-income Medicare beneficiaries? Medicare payments are 8 percent higher for these beneficiaries, but the costs are 21 percent more. Got it.
Environmental regulations (e.g., trash disposal) are much harsher for big business than, say, for homes. Robin Hanson asks if it shouldn’t be the other way around. (via Econlog)
Mixed results, apparently:
The project was launched in 2005 after five years of planning. By the end of the third year, all ten groups had achieved fairly high levels of performance — not surprising given the historic emphasis on quality within those organizations. All ten achieved pre-specified benchmarks on 28 of the quality measures, and two of them, Geisinger and Park Nicollet Health Services of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, had surpassed their goals on all 32. But only five groups generated any savings, according to CMS.
Full article on Medicare pilot savings projects.
Voters in Arizona and Oklahoma opt out of the individual mandate in the federal health reform law. Colorado voters stay in.
Primary care doctors worked an average of 53.1 hours per week and earned an average annual income of $187,857 in 2004/05. Income was 48% higher for surgeons, 36% higher for internal medicine and pediatric subspecialties, and 45% higher for clinicians in other specialties.
Why do Medicare patients living in nursing homes go to the hospital so often? Because doctors (and just about everybody else) get paid more when that happens. (HT to Jason Shafrin)
Follow up: 24 percent of all hospitalizations for long‐term care facility residents in 2006 were potentially preventable. (HP to Jason Shafrin)
A new letter by Medicare Chief Actuary, Richard Foster, to Senate Republicans quantifies the expected losses for seniors. Those enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans will see their out-of-pocket costs rise by $346 per year in 2011, peaking at $923 in 2017.
Did you know the government is spending $62.5 billion annually on government contracts and the public was barred from knowing to whom the money was going? The CIA? NSA? Blackwater contractors? Special ops missions? No. None of these. It’s health care.
That’s how much Medicare pays physicians who treat Medicare patients. Yet the American Medical Association successfully sued the government decades ago to keep the amounts paid to specific providers a secret — making it difficult to tackle fraud, waste and abuse. Austin Frakt of The Incidental Economist also weighs in on the topic.
