Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Health Economist Uwe Reinhardt supports expanding the DRG system to all payers. “Under Medicare’s approach, hospitals are paid one price for an entire inpatient episode, rather than piece-rate (fee-for-service) for every single supply and service delivered in that episode…To eliminate the rampant price-discrimination inherent in current hospital pricing, all hospitals under this system would…
One of the perennial questions of interest for health services researchers how to pay for health care. A paper by Chalkley and McVicar (2008) examines this question in the contest of a reform in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). “After 1990 hospitals, which had previously been under the direct control of Health Authorities, could apply for NHS…
Europe is known for having single-payer, government provided healthcare. But just because there is significant government involvement in the financing of medical services does not mean that private hospitals are non-existent. An interesting series of post by HealthcareEuropa looks at private hospitals that operate in Bulgaria, Turkey and Germany.
In the U.S., 2.9% of individuals who enter a hospital are actually harmed by the medical care they receive. Reducing these preventable iatrogenic injuries is one of the goals of any hospital administrator. Paul Levy of Running a Hospital lists 3 goals to achieve in the new year which will help reduce these adverse events.…
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…
I have written in the past about the recent popularity of single specialty hospitals (see “Focused Factories” and “…Specialty Hospitals” posts). A paper by Kathleen Carey investigates whether or not single specialty hospitals are more efficient than traditional mutli-specialty hospitals. The study finds the following: Overall, single speciality hospitals (SSH) are not more cost efficient…
Patients choose hospitals based on the quality of the medical care they receive and the hospital’s distance from their home. But what nonclinical criteria do patients value most? The Salud y Gestión blog reviews the findings of a study in The McKinsey Quarterly. The study found that patients rank the following as the most important…
Hospital-acquired, or nosocomial, infections are often caused by poor hospital care. Patients arrive to the hospital and often leave with infections caused by unsanitary hospital conditions. Should Medicare pay for these hospital-induced health care costs? A knee jerk reaction would be to say no. If the hospital adversely influence patient health, Medicare or other payors should…
The N.Y. Times writes about how hospitals have standardized patient warning wristbands. Now, red wristbands will denote an allergy risk, yellow will denote a fall risk, and so on. This should be the same at all hospitals, reducing the need to re-train nurses and other hospital staff who move between hospitals. “The drive [to standardize…
The Running a Hospital blog notes that a physician peer review system is absent in most hospitals. Physicians are only critiqued when something goes wrong. However, this need not be the case. “Our Chief of Neurology, Clif Saper, originated a thoughtful practice… The doctors in his department do randomly assigned reviews of the case notes…