A small group of healthcare providers took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to press their case that the business practices of group purchasing organizations are causing drug shortages.
The group, which is called Physicians Against Drug Shortages, is made up of about seven physicians, a pharmacist and a long-time critic of the GPO industry who say their aim is to restore the supply of generic drugs that have had shortages.
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Larger independent physician groups with “strong primary-care orientations” and where doctors have accepted greater financial risk deliver better quality care for Medicare beneficiaries at lower cost, according to a report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers with Harvard Medical School's healthcare policy department studied 2009 Medicare claims for almost 4.3 million beneficiaries and compared spending and quality measures for small (one to 10 doctors), medium-to-large and hospital-based physician groups. Quality measures included 30-day hospital readmissions, and mammography, diabetes and cholesterol screening for the appropriate patients.
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The CMS on Tuesday heralded a lower prevalence of antipsychotic drug use in the nation's nursing homes, which the agency attributes to a dementia-care program it launched last year.
According to the agency, data released on the Nursing Home Compare website in July showed that nursing homes are using antipsychotic drugs less and pursuing more patient-centered treatment for dementia and other behavioral healthcare.
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Kaiser Permanente reports it used patient registries, data analytics, dissemination of evidence-based guidelines, sharing of performance metrics and the increased use of prescription drugs to achieve a near doubling of the rate of patients who got their high blood pressure under control. The report highlights the growing focus by healthcare providers and health plans on taking proactive measures to improve population health and management of chronic medical conditions.
Results of the long-term, large-scale and multifaceted effort were published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The lead author is Dr. Marc Jaffe, of the Kaiser Permanente South San Francisco Medical Center.
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The application of health information technology in primary-care settings can improve the quality of care, but it's no magic wand for quality improvement, according to a report on two dozen grant programs funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The report found the use of health IT coincided with greater adherence by providers to processes related to evidence-based care recommendations and improvements in patients' overall health status, as well as improved clinical outcomes for patients with chronic diseases if coupled with other workflow changes, among other findings.
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Patient-safety issues raised by the critics of limits on resident duty hours have not materialized. But concerns about doctors-in-training spending less time with patients appear to be valid, according to two new studies in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education set an 80-hour weekly work limit (averaged over four weeks) in 2003. Further limits, including restricting first-year residents to 16-hour shifts went into effect in 2011. The movement to limit resident work hours was originally driven by Sidney Zion, a journalist, prosecutor and novelist, whose 18-year-old daughter Libby died a few hours after being admitted to New York Hospital on the night of March 4, 1984. His fight led to New York state limiting residents to an 80-hour workweek and 24-hour shifts in 1989.
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As healthcare reform expands coverage, nonphysician providers are seeking to expand their portfolio of licensed services and are facing intense opposition from doctors to their efforts.
In California, three bills before the Legislature propose to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists, with one bill advancing and two bills being stalled.
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A new analysis suggests that smart design of the websites used for the new state insurance exchanges to enroll consumers in health plans could save consumers and the government more than $9 billion a year.
It highlights the difficulty for consumers of choosing a health plan that best fits their healthcare and financial circumstances even in the new reform environment where they can more easily make apples-to-apples comparisons.
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A patient engagement and reporting program linked to financial incentives yielded multiple improvements in health measures for employees of UnitedHealth Group, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
UnitedHealth employees enrolled in the health insurance company's Rewards for Health program were able to earn points good for premium reductions as high as $1,200 for family coverage. The rewards program used health screenings targeting diabetes, cancer and other diseases as well as more general weight control based on the worker's body mass index.
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The findings of a new study published this week in BMJ Quality & Safety show the first evidence that electronic health records can play a role in reducing hospital readmissions of high-risk heart failure patients.
The study evaluated more than 1,700 adult inpatients diagnosed with heart failure, myocardial infarction and pneumonia over a two-year period at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. With the use of software developed to assess the patients on a daily basis at highest risk, researchers were able reduce the readmission rate of those studied by 26%.
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It's Christmas in July for Medicare-participating physicians—though the gift is far from being delivered. On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth-rate formula and replace it with a stable system of payments to the nation's physicians.
For years, Congress has waited until the end of the calendar year to stave off a steep Medicare payment cut to physicians with a temporary fix.
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