October 2011

Telephone care management increased mental health service use for Medicaid beneficiaries with depression but did not reduce depression severity. More intensive services may be needed.

Costs of potentially avoidable complications have significantly more variation than costs of typical care in selected chronic and procedural episodes.

An intensive tobacco dependence intervention based on selfdetermination theory that targeted all smokers was cost-effective and facilitated patient autonomy, perceived competence, and long-term tobacco abstinence.

Even small changes in average copayment for long-term controller asthma medications can result in significant reductions in medication use and increases in healthcare services.

Routinely screening pregnant women for Staphylococcus aureus colonization and decolonizing carriers before cesarean delivery are unlikely to be cost-effective under current epidemiologic circumstances.

The overall incidence of hypoglycemia was considerable in this large working-age population and was associated with $52 million (2008 dollars) in direct medical costs.

Employees with hepatitis C (HCV) who underwent existing treatments had more absences and higher indirect costs than HCVinfected employees who did not undergo treatment.

Retrospective analysis of value-based insurance design (VBID) showed the potential for VBID to improve adherence and reduce utilization and costs with active disease management counseling.

Pharmacist-provided telephonic medication therapy management consultations can lead to decreases in total all-cause healthcare expenditures in a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan population.

High-deductible health plan members had sustained reductions in emergency department visits over 2 years but initial reductions in hospital utilization and costs were not sustained.