Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Tomorrow I will be presenting a poster on “How well do surrogate endpoints and overall survival endpoints in clinical trials predict real-world survival?”at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference. Below is the poster information if anyone wants to stop by. You can download the poster HERE. Session Title: Poster Session: Health Services Research and Quality…
Patients with schizophrenia often require medication—such as antipsychotics—to control the symptoms of their disease. However, adherence to these medications has been poor. Valenstein et al. (2004) estimate that 40% of patients are non-compliant with therapy [i.e., mediation possession ratio (MPR)<0.8]. Why are schizophrenia patients likely to be non-complient to antipsychotic therapy? One key reason is…
Income elasticity for vaccines. Commuting time and health. Can the police get my medical information without a warrant? Life is complicated. “an insurer’s idiosyncratic view of medical necessity is unlikely to carry the day”
Form a paper in Nature: Noë, a primate behavioural ecologist now at the Hubert Curien Multidisciplinary Institute in Strasbourg, France, had come up with a biological market-based theory of cooperation. It proposed that animals cooperate to trade a specific commodity — such as food — for a service that would promote their survival, such as…
Most previous research into Medicaid expansions focus on extending coverage to pregnant women or children. However, a recent Section 1115 waiver allows for researcher to examine what happens when Medicaid coverage is extended to a larger share of adults. This is exactly what a paper by Atherly et al. (2015) examines: …prior to ACA adults…
Just before Memorial Day, a Maryland congressman recently proposed shrinking the scope of services the VA provides to veterans. How would he do this? He proposes a model: …where the VA is not the place of general health care for the veterans, but the place of highly-specialized care where skilled professionals are particularly well-equipped to…
Apple Watch and chemotherapy. Globalization of healthcare. #YoTambienMeDormi. $2 billion needed for antibiotics research? Out-of-pocket costs as a side effect? …plus a pre-Memorial Day Edition of Health Wonk Review at Workers Comp Insider.
Courtesy of xkcd.
How did the enactment of Medicare Part D affect the mental health of the elderly? This is the question Ayyagari and Shane attempt to answer in their recent JHE paper. The authors use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) between 2010 and 2010 to measure changes in depressive symptoms among patients aged 60-70.…
The ACA (aka Oabamacare) has a “guaranteed issue” provision that requires insurers to offer coverage to all individuals who apply. The ACA also prohibits insurers from taking into account patients’ pre-existing conditions when setting premiums and mandates the coverage of certain services, such as preventive services and an annual check-up. This sounds like a great idea. Everyone can get insurance;…