Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Many health plans have used patient health ratings as important metrics for quality improvement. The simplest way to evaluated the quality of a health plan is to ask all members to rate the plan from 1-10 and take the average score. However, this simple averaging gives health plans an incentive to improve quality for low…
The Washington Post reports that the number of children who have been vaccinated in developing countries has been greatly exaggerated. Political pressure to increase vaccination rates as well as financial incentives from NGOs rewarded increased vaccinations has driven these reporting errors. Hat Tip: Marginal Revolution.
Does better screening lead to improvements in health outcomes? Conventional wisdom holds that this is always true. For instance, catching breast cancer at an early stage greatly improves survival probabilities. However, early screening can lead to a statistical anomaly where better screening appears to improve mortality rates even when treatments are entirely ineffective. Here is…
My favorite Economist issue is out: The Economist picks for the books of the year. Below, is a list of my favorite books that I’ve read in the last 12 months. East of Eden – one of the top 5 books I’ve ever read. A Separate Peace – A short, simple book, but one that stays…
The Center for Studying Health System Change gives some insight into how patients choose their doctor: “Among consumers who found a new provider, few engaged in active shopping or considered price or quality information—especially when choosing specialists or facilities for medical procedures. When selecting new primary care physicians, half of all consumers relied on word-of-mouth…
The “Just the facts, ma’am” edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at the e-CareManagement blog.
The USA Today reports that a half-dose of flu vaccine has proven to be nearly as effective as the full dose “especially in women and those younger than 50.” Why is this important? During vaccine shortages, half doses of vaccines can be used to conserve resources.
Does marriage cause men’s wages to rise? This is the question addressed by UCSD professor Kate Antonovics and Robert Town in their 2004 paper in AER cleverly titled “Are all the good men married?” It has been shown that married men earn more money than non-married men with similar characteristics. Why is this? A few…
Merrill Goozer reports that “While the rest of the economy was shedding nearly 600,000 jobs and the nation’s once-proud automobile industry went begging for a bailout,” the health care sector actually added 52,100 jobs last month.
For many illnesses, Medicare pays physicians a lump sum for the entire episode of care. This is known at the prospect payment system (PPS). But how does Medicare determine the payment amount? How should Medicare determine the payment amount? Medicare generally looks at 1) what treatments are generally used on average to treat a patient…