Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
From the researchers at the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care: “Regional differences in Medicare spending are largely explained by the more inpatient-based and specialist-oriented pattern of practice observed in high-spending regions. Neither quality of care nor access to care appear to be better for Medicare enrollees in higher-spending regions.” Fisher ES, Wennberg DE, Stukel TA,…
The latest edition of the Cavalcade of Risk is up at American Consumer News.
Marketplace reports that UnitedHealth Group has just reached a large settlement with the State of New York. What did UnitedHealth Group do wrong? According to the State of New York, it was overcharging patients who went out of the network. The N.Y. Times gives a good example: “The patient might receive a doctor’s bill for $100,…
A new book by Dr. Michael Ozner takes on the cardiovascular surgery industry head-on. The aptly titled Great American Heart Hoax claims that although insurers pay $60 billion per year invasive cardiovascular surgery, 70%-90% of these procedures are unnecessary. The book has three major themes: What is heart disease? Why is heart surgery a…
Bob Laszewski has a great posts on 5 false “solutions” to reduce health care costs. These are: EMR: Making electronic medical records universal will greatly improve health care quality, but the impact on cost will be minor. Better quality care can reduce iatrogenic injuries and reduce cost, but the cost reduction–if any–will likely be small…
Should doctors prescribe pharmaceuticals to patients who have heart disease. Statins and ACE inhibitors are frequently prescribed to patients with cardiovascular problems. These medications have been shown to decrease the risk of heart attack in clinical trials, but could they actually increase the risk of a heart attack in the real world? The answer is…
Since the early 1980s, age-adjusted cancer mortality rates have been falling over time. Is this due to better screening, better treatment, or healthier behavioral factors? Is this progress cost-effective? Are we really winning the war on cancer? A paper by Culter (2008) tries to answer this question. First it is important to note that there…
The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at The Health Care Blog.
Wisconsin’s Medicaid plan covers children from 0-5 years old whose parents have income below 150% of the poverty line. Sixty percent of Massachusetts residence receive coverage through their employer compared to 53% nationwide. Forty-six percent of Californian firms with less than 50 employees offer health insurance compared to the national average of 43%. How did…
The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon moderates an interesting policy forum on “Does America’s Health Care Sector Produce More Health?” A podcast of the forum is available here. Is a single payer system better than an unregulated health care system? If they U.S. scores worse on health care metrics, does that mean that unregulated health care…