Provider-Owned Health Plans Do Not Produce Cheaper Insurance Coverage
Although the fee-for-service model of reimbursement has been blamed as an reason for high healthcare costs in America, a report from HealthPocket found that eliminating this payment model in provider-owned health plans did not produce the cheapest health plans.
Use of Telemedicine to Care for Older Veterans With Depression
Telemedicine could increase access to best-practice care for older adults with major depression who are facing barriers of mobility, stigma, and geographical isolation, and a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry compared treatment response delivered via telemedicine with same-room care.
Seniors Receive Less Consults But More Medication for Mental Health Disorders
The study found that the geriatric population in the United States receives prescriptions for mental health drugs at more than twice the rate that younger adults do, but they present a lower rate of seeking psychiatric care.
Enrolling Consumers Not Enough-They Need to Be Engaged, Too
Increasing health insurance enrollment is only one part of the goal of the Affordable Care Act-the law also aims to improve population health and lower healthcare costs, but less attention has been paid to these critical steps.
Training Linked to Costly Brand Name Prescribing
There is a link between low-value prescribing and graduate medical training, according to a study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.