Health Affairs March/April Issue Highlights Health Care Trends

Here are selected headlines from the March/April issue of Health Affairs:

• Trends: "The Concentration of Health Care Expenditures, Revisited;" "Three Decades of Health Care Use by the Elderly, 1965-1998;" "Americans' Views on Health Policy: A Fifty-Year Historical Perspective;" "Trends in Out-of-Pocket Spending by Insured American Workers, 1990-1997;" and "Trend Data on Medical Encounters: Tracking a Moving Target."
• Pharmaceuticals: "Growing Differences Between Medicare Beneficiaries with and without Drug Coverage;" "Dynamics in Drug Coverage of Medicare Beneficiaries: Finders, Losers, Switchers;" "The U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry: Why Major Growth in Times of Cost Containment?" and "Prescription Drug Prices: Why Do Some Pay More than Others Do?"
• Commentary: "The Controversy of Increased Spending for Antidepressants."
• Graduate Medical Education: "Paying for Graduate Medical Education: The Debate Goes On;" "Economists on Academic Medicine: Elephants in a Porcelain Shop?" "Does Economic Theory Justify Changing Policy that Works?" and "Another Alternative for Financing Graduate Medical Education."
• Health Tracking: "Do Consumers Know How Their Health Plan Works?" "Patients and Profits: The Relationship Between HMO Financial Performance and Quality of Care;" "Provider Organizations at Risk: A Profile of Major Risk-Bearing Intermediaries, 1999;" "Patients' Attitudes Toward Cost Control Bonuses for Managed Care Physicians;" "Health Spending Growth Up in 1999; Faster Growth Expected in the Future" (see story 1 for more on this study); "Moving to Medicare: Trends in the Health Insurance Status of Near-Elderly Workers, 1987-1996;" "Trends in Mental Health Services Use and Spending, 1987-1996;" "Trends in Avoidable Hospitalizations, 1980-1998;" and "Hospital Finance: Signs of 'Pushback' Amid Resurgent Cost Pressures."
• Datawatch: "Medicare Physician Payment Changes: Impact on Physicians and Beneficiaries" and "Health Plan Characteristics and Consumers' Assessments of Quality."
• Grantwatch: "Patient Safety: Grantmakers Join the Effort to Reduce Medical Errors."