Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
In Health Affairs, CMS Office of the Actuary (OACT) notes that while health care spending grew in 2018, it actually fell as a percentage of the economy. US health care spending increased 4.6 percent to reach $3.6 trillion in 2018, a faster growth rate than the rate of 4.2 percent in 2017 but the same…
The answer is ‘maybe’. Some are scarred by the distance between the hype and reality of electronic health records (EHR), which promised both improved efficiency for practices and superior patient health outcomes. In practice–especially in the short-turn–EMR resulted in a lot of both direct and data entry cost to practices with limited interoperability and modest…
The central proposition of the Grossman model (Grossman 1972) is that health can be viewed as a durable capital stock that produces an output of healthy time. It is assumed that individuals inherit an initial stock of health that depreciates with age and can be increased by investment. The model is similar to human capital…
How do you define if an area is rural? A paper by Bennett et al. (2019) provides some options. Population density. This is one of the simplest approaches and can be applied to any geographic unit. However, it may be problematic for geographic units with a mix of urban and rural sections. MSA-based. The Office…
Medicaid reimbursement access and health outcomes. Where to move to in old age. The cost of Alzheimer’s to Medicaid managed care. The impact of the soda tax. Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program performance explained: “74.3% to 86.5% of the improvement in ERRs [excess readmission ratio] for penalized hospitals was explained by RTM [regression to the mean].”
In anticipation of the Thanksgiving Holiday… We can complain that rose bushes have thorns or we can rejoice that thorn bushes have roses.” Abraham Lincoln For me every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart every time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.” Elie Wiesel Gratitude is…
You may know that pollution is bad for your health, but how bad is it? Patrick Collison has a nice blog post summarizing the evidence. Chess players make more mistakes on polluted days. – Künn et al 2019. An increase in pollution is associated with increased risk of Alzheimers (Fu et al 2019) and dementia…
Health care costs are high in the U.S., making up 17.9% of the U.S. economy. The Economist reports on recent key drivers of US health care cost…and the answer isn’t drugs. Mr Trump has correctly identified a big villain behind health-care cost inflation, and it is not Big Pharma. Hospitals account for over 30% of…
I recently finish a very interesting book on drugs and addiction titled Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction. The book was written by Judith Grisel, who is a not only a professor and neuroscientist, but also a former drug addict. The book describes the process of addiction, and how different types of illicit…
Deaths due to lack of health insurance. Drugs vs. stents. New investment idea? Workers comp is doing great or a big problem? Health system comparison: Germany vs. US.