Friday Links
Too much money? 21 page application for Obamacare subsidies. Rate shock and awe in California. The Good Doctor’s Mind Map. All over the map.
Month: May 2013
Will missing data affect physician P4P scores?
The answer is yes, but maybe not as much as you may thought. A paper by Ryan and Bao use data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) called IMPACT (Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment) to determine if errors in physician quality profiling are due mostly to random variation or missing data. For this report,…
Health Insurance Premiums in the Exchange
In the health insurance exchange, premiums will rise significantly. At least according to Robert Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review: One of the reasons health insurance in the exchange will cost a lot more in most states is because the new health law outlaws many of the existing plans now being offered and…
Cavalcade of Risk: Memorial Day Edition
Jeff Rose hosts this week’s small, but powerful, roundup of risk-related posts. From fast-food to k-rations, you’ll run little risk of being disappointed. The Healthcare Economist bats leadoff.
Insurance and Receipt of Recommended Care
Insurance doesn’t have much effect on whether patients receive recommended care: Source: Asch SM, Kerr EA, Keesey J, Adams JL, Setodji CM, Malik S, et al. Who Is at Greatest Risk for Receiving Poor-Quality Health Care? New England Journal of Medicine. 2006;354(11):1147-56. PubMed PMID: 16540615. HT: Ashish Jha of The Health Care Blog.
Use EMR…or else!
Hayward Zwerling of the Health Care Blog notes that a large number of doctors in Massachusetts may soon be losing their license. Section 108 of Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012 states: The first paragraph of section 2 of chapter 112 of the General Laws … is hereby amended by inserting (the following)… The board (of…
Does your child have ADHD?
The share children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADHD) is between 4.9 percent and 9 percent (depending on your selected source). Non-Hispanic Whites are the most likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. Between 2009 period and 1998, the average number of children aged 5-17 ever diagnosed with ADHD increased from 6.9% to 9.0% of the…
Are minimally invasive surgeries worth the cost?
In the past decades, many surgeries have gone from a standard, open surgical approach to a minimally invasive one using laproscopic, endoscopic, and catheter based techniques. What has been the effect of these innovations on medical spending and employee absenteeism? To answer this question, a paper by Epstein et al. (2013) examines a sample of…
Friday Links
It’s time for some fun reading for the long weekend: Good news. Obamacare’s smoker penalty. Hospital Strike. Mourning the end of catastrophic-only plans? Bag of Shite.
Health Wonk Review: Sardonic Edition
Brad Wright has posted the latest edition of the Health Wonk Review at Wright on Health, which he describes as “a bit tongue-in-cheek, as I offer some interesting definitions of well-known words and make light of some of the more despair-inducing aspects of the world of health policy. Buckle up, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” Check…