200 Years Of Surgery In Eight Pages (With Drawings!)
For the 200th anniversary of the New England Journal of Medicine, Atul Gawande — surgeon, journalist, author, researcher, public speaker, father of three — takes a fun spin through two centuries of surgery by going back to the first volume of the publication, then known by the slightly less succinct name of the New England […]
Costly Heart Procedures Thrive In Some Places, Michigan Study Finds
Why do some doctors keep doing expensive medical procedures after it becomes apparent there are cheaper and equally safe ways to treat patients? A new study of cardiac procedures in Michigan takes a crack at this question, and while it comes up short on definitive answers, it has some interesting findings. The Center for Healthcare […]
Medicare To Add Hospital Efficiency, Patient Safety To Payment Formula
Medicare is proposing a significant change in how it decides on hospital reimbursements, adding two measures of patient safety and a financial assessment of whether hospitals are careful stewards of Medicare’s money. The changes represent a broadening of the way Medicare plans to pay hospitals through its value-based purchasing program, which is set to begin in October. Medicare […]
Survey: Court Hearings Don’t Move Public Opinion On Health Law
The three days in March that the Supreme Court devoted to debating the health law didn’t change many minds among the public. But the debate, and related media coverage, appear to have increased awareness about the law and made Republicans more supportive of the justices, according to a new survey. As it has for two years, […]
Medicare To Tie Doctors’ Pay To Quality, Cost Of Care
A little-noticed provision of the health law calls for increasing reimbursements to doctors who provide quality care at lower cost and reducing payments to physicians who run up costs without better results.
Recession Boosted Hospital Expansions Into Affluent Areas, Study Finds
Amid the recession, hospitals have been aggressively establishing footholds in affluent areas outside their traditional market boundaries as they fight for the patients with the best insurance, according to a new study. The paper, published in Health Affairs, found hospitals “wooing” EMS workers that service well-off neighborhoods, even sprucing up the rooms where the workers […]
Effort To Pay Hospitals Based On Quality Didn’t Cut Death Rates, Study Finds
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that a test project
If Mandate Is Overturned, Obama Could Need Help To Salvage The Health Law
Should the Supreme Court throw out the requirement to carry insurance, the administration might need assistance from Congress or the insurance industry to complete the overhaul.
Best Hospitals In New Analysis Are Not The Most Renowned
HealthGrades is out with its latest list of America’s best hospitals, and the collection is notable for the heavy presence of community hospitals and the omission of many of the medical centers with national reputation. The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the Cleveland Clinic and Stanford Hospital in Palo […]
HHS Floats New Ideas For Contraception Coverage Compromise
Again wading into the conflict between religious liberty and reproductive rights, the Obama administration on Friday suggested a number of ways it might arrange for insurers to pay for the contraception of employees of religious organizations without using any premium money from those groups. The ideas are intended to deal with a knotty problem created […]
Personal Views Color Public Opinion Of Health Law Court Case
Half the country hopes the Supreme Court will throw out the health law’s mandate that Americans carry health insurance, according to a new poll released Wednesday. In what may be a sign of political wish fulfillment, half of Americans expect that the court will take that course when it takes up the case later this […]
Study Finds High-Spending Canadian Hospitals Do Better
Canada has long been a favored talking point for debates over the quality of America’s health system, alternatively cast as either Eden or Gomorrah. A new paper adds a shade of gray into the understanding of Canadian hospitals — and the ongoing debate here about whether when it comes to medical spending, less is more. […]
Study: Medicare Quality Ratings Didn’t Reduce Patient Deaths
Medicare’s seven-year effort to spur quality improvements in hospital care by publishing key performance metrics on its Hospital Compare website has not resulted in fewer patient deaths, according to a new Health Affairs study. In 2005, Hospital Compare started rating more than 3,000 hospitals on how well they adhere to basic guidelines for clinical care, […]
Autoworkers’ Health Claims Offer Clues To Regional Spending Variations
Why does health care cost more in some areas of the country than others? It’s a question researchers have struggled with for decades, because the potential answers — unnecessary surgeries, generally bad health of patients or high prices charged by providers — each carry different prescriptions for how to hold down medical costs. Now a […]
Experts Question Medicare’s Effort To Rate Hospitals’ Patient Safety Records
The new data identify many major teaching institutions as having high rates of serious complications. But officials say the measures are faulty.
Medicare Data Show Variation In ‘Central Line’ Infection Rates Across States
Across the country, one in six hospitals has high rates of one of the most serious kinds of preventable infections — those caused by catheters inserted into large veins, according to new data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Patients at hospitals in Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, Maine and New Hampshire were most […]
Nowhere To Go But Up For The Poor Lacking Insurance, Says Study
In anticipation of the expansion of health insurance that will start in 2014 under the federal health care law, the Commonwealth Fund has begun tracking coverage of low-income Americans. The first of the surveys reconfirms what’s already well-known: the poor are starting from a pretty bad place in terms of coverage. A few examples: A […]
In Quest to Grow, Catholic Hospital System Pares Religious Ties
Catholic Healthcare West today ends its governing board’s religious affiliation to ease concerns from possible new partners. Some of its hospitals will remain Catholic.
CBO Report Card: Poor Grades For Some Medicare Cost Cutting Efforts
The underlying premise of some of the 2010 health law’s most ambitious changes to Medicare is using financial incentives to get doctors and hospitals to improve the quality of care and lower costs. Both accountable care organizations and the Value-Based Purchasing Program aim to give bonuses to hospitals that achieve such goals. But a new […]
Panel Winnows Proposed Quality Measures For Medicare And Medicaid
Updated 12:25 p.m. A panel of health care experts and industry officials has winnowed down 368 quality measures the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is considering to use in evaluating nursing homes, hospitals, diabetes facilities and other providers. The panel said 45 percent of the potential measures it reviewed shouldn’t be used by the […]
