Laura Joszt, MA

Earlier diagnosis, longer treatment duration, and increased effectiveness of cancer therapies all contributed to the constantly rising spending levels for these medicines.

The Pioneer ACO Model successfully reported smaller increases in total Medicare expenditures and reductions in health service utilization, for savings of approximately $385 million during the first 2 years compared with general Medicare fee-for-service.

The increased availability of urgent care centers, retail clinics, and telephone triage lines has not affected emergency department (ED) visits. In fact, three-fourths of emergency physicians report ED visits are going up.

Patients at hospitals with high rates of skilled nursing facility discharge usually have poorer outcomes and higher downstream spending, according to researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University.

Accessing patient information in a health information exchange system during the 30 days after hospital discharge reduced the odds of readmission, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

A review of clinical registries determined data collection on patient outcomes are substandard and the information is not useful for patients, physicians, and policy makers, according to a paper published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.

Although practices saw a decrease in patient visits during the 2 years after electronic health record implementation, they reported an increase in revenue during that same time period, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Industry experts at the National Association for Healthcare Quality's National Quality Summit highlighted improving care through successful care transitions.

Opioid-dependent patients treated at an emergency department (ED) who were given buprenorphine were more likely to engage in addiction treatment to reduce their opioid use, according to a study published in JAMA.

Medigap, the Medicare supplement coverage that helps fee-for-service beneficiaries fill gaps in their benefits, continues to be important for low-income beneficiaries and especially those living in rural areas, according to America's Health Insurance Plans.

A study of the use of patient portals among older Americans found clear disparities in the registration and use of this technology. The results were published in the Journal of the Americans Medical Informatics Association.

Enlisting electronic health record (EHR) super users to provide support to employees is not enough to foster EHR implementation success-super users' behaviors can be an important influence, researchers from Yale University found.

The use of a tiered network was associated with the increased use of hospitals on the preferred and middle tiers for planned hospital admissions compared with the nonpreferred tier, according to a paper in Health Services Research.

Nearly all doctors reported barriers to conducting effective end-of-life conversations with patients, and most felt that it was especially difficult to discuss with patients of a different ethnicity, according to researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Hospital patients felt an increased financial burden in 2014 due to a combination of rising procedure costs and higher deductibles, according to TransUnion Healthcare's Q4 2014 report.

Being admitted to the hospital on the weekend is associated with an increased likelihood of a hospital-acquired condition, which in turn increases cost and length of stay, reported researchers from the University of Southern California.

Adoption of alternative payment models that reduce the number of visits to the emergency department could cause unintended consequences for emergency care through a reduction in revenue, according to researchers at the Brookings Institute.

While statins can prevent disease in older adults, they can also cause potentially serious side effects that could outweigh the benefits, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

While most patients do not benefit from early follow-up after they are discharged from the hospital, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and Community Care of North Carolina found follow-up within 7 days was associated with substantially lower readmission rates among patients with high clinical complexity and high risk of readmission.

Improvements in quality of care and patient safety in hospitals have saved $12 billion from 2011-2013, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. However, while disparities in access to care are diminishing, they still remain.

A study of 8 states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act found budget savings of $1.8 billion as well as revenue gains by the end of 2015, just one-and-a-half years into expansion.

Studies have shown that income is tied to most matters of health, including life expectancy, prevalence of diseases, and health behaviors. The Urban Institute and the Center on Society and Health have analyzed emerging evidence and prospects of income-related policies that work to improve population health.

While a record number of hospitals are adopting computerized physician order entry systems, which can substantially reduce common medication errors, there is still work to do, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group.

Although physicians are getting better at using electronic medical records, fewer believe the technology has improved health outcomes over the last 2 years, according to a survey of more than 600 US physicians from Accenture.

Patients want to be asked permission to participate in research even if it only involves reviews of anonymized medical records, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

With just hours to go before an automatic 21% cut in Medicare fees was scheduled to take effect, the Senate passed legislation to repeal the much-reviled sustainable growth rate formula.

Current reimbursement rates that fail to cover the cost of filling prescriptions is putting the patient's access to generic prescription drugs at risk, according to a survey of community pharmacists.

Nearly all physicians report experiencing a delay or difficulty delivery medical care because a patient's health record was not accessible, according to a survey prepared by athenahealth.

Cancer patients without insurance can be paying up to 43 times what Medicare pays for the same chemotherapy drugs, according to a new study published in Health Affairs from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A new coalition of consumers, healthcare providers, and industry launched the Clear Choices Campaign on April 9 to advocate for more transparent, accountable, and consumer-friendly health markets.