I wrote not too long ago about a way to overcome the potential shortage of primary care physicians, the shortage some experts worry about because of the increased demand for primary care that will be created by Obamacare. I promoted the idea of primary care physicians teaming with allied healthcare professionals, so they can manage…
A recent survey described in the April issue of Health Affairs reveals widespread disenchantment with the US healthcare system, as compared to a number of other developed countries. Keep these results in mind the next time you hear someone raving about how the US healthcare system is the best one in the world. (Click here…
Health policy wonks have been pointing for a while now to large variations in Medicare spending across different parts of the country. Live in Miami, and the government is probably going to spend a heck of a lot more for you on Medicare than if you live in Minneapolis, even after accounting for how healthy or…
Imagine you are a small business owner deciding whether to hire two new employees, your 50th and 51st workers respectively. Would you hire them knowing that, by surpassing the magic number 50, you will now be obligated under Obamacare to pay a penalty unless you offer all your employees affordable healthcare insurance? Imagine you are owner of…
For most Medicare patients in United States right now, Medicare pays for hospital stays on the basis of what are called Diagnostic Related Groups or DRGs. You get diagnosed with pneumonia, and your hospital gets payment to treat a typical case of pneumonia. Name the diagnosis, and the hospital will know what it gets paid….
Healthcare systems are big and complex beasts, that are very hard to transform overnight. In the United States, for example, we have long had a system of care dominated by fee-for-service payment. In this kind of system, the more tests and procedures and office visits that a physician orders, the more that physician gets paid….
In the April issue of Health Affairs, a group of authors explored the cost-containment strategies and four “high income countries“, and try to see what they were doing that we are currently not doing in the United States. The first picture below, shows all five countries and reveals that, over the last 10 years, only…
I am not a fan of judging the quality of a nation’s healthcare system by examining life expectancy. Many, many factors influence life expectancy that have nothing to do with healthcare. When examining life expectancy in developed countries, for example, all of which have decent healthcare systems, your best bets at predicting differences across countries…
Once again, lots of reports in the news about crazy variation in hospital prices in the United States, with thousands or tens of thousands of dollars difference in the price of services from one hospital to its neighbor across the street. Marketplace did a nice report on this issue recently, including an interview with yours…
On April 14, The United States Preventive Services Taskforce concluded that women with an elevated risk of breast cancer – who have never been diagnosed with breast cancer but whose family history and other medical factors increase their odds of developing the disease–should consider taking one of two pills that cut that risk in half….