Who uses out-of-network providers?

According to a recent paper by Kyanko, Curry and Busch (2003), 8 percent of insured individuals used an out-of-network physician. Why are people using out-of-network services? The authors give the following breakdown. Approximately 40 percent of individuals using out-of-network physicians experienced involuntary out-of-network care. Whereas fifteen percent of outpatient out-of-network contacts were involuntary, almost 60…

Problem solved?

As most people know, President Obama promised that everyone could keep their old insurance if they liked it. Although most people are able to keep their old insurance, some people certainly are not and the president has gotten major political heat for this.  Today, the Obama administration responded to the critics.  The Washington Post WonkBlog…

Access to Oncology Care

Oftentimes, health services research measure access as the distance between a patient and the nearest provider of a given type (e.g., hospital, physician).  This issue of access is particularly relevant for individuals with cancer, since cancer care typically requires supervisions from specialist oncologists.  In most cases, health services researchers assume that individuals located far from…

Foreign-Educated Healthcare Workers

Many of the health care workers serving Americans were either born or educated abroad?  Where do they come from?  A paper by Chen et al. (2013) gives the answer. Top 5 countries for foreign educated physicians India: 20.4% Philippines: 8.1% Pakistan: 6.0% Mexico: 5.4% Dominican Republic: 3.2% Top 5 countries for foreign educated nurses (RNs)…

Measuring cause-specific mortality?

This question is not so easy to answer, even when using data from a randomized trial.  Further, many studies do not have the statistical power to identify cause-specific mortality.  Consider the following example from Kim and Thompson: Consider a trial of an intervention only influencing a single cause of death, or a few specific causes…