June 2015

The authors undertook a literature search on treatment intensification in diabetes care to identify relevant research that has been published since 2000.

The potential of nurse practitioners is not being fully realized in primary care medical practices. Consequently, cost and quality gains are not being achieved.

This article describes a study of an intervention to engage Medicare Part D beneficiaries in obtaining a comprehensive medication review.

Using a state-transition probability analysis, this study assessed the long-term outcomes and economic implications of combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing for managing patients with major depressive disorder who were nonresponsive to treatments.

This study examines the association between plan-level measures of health outcomes and medication adherence to assess the viability of adherence as a measure of plan performance.

Unlike ACOs or P4P, implementation of bundled payment for inpatient and post acute care in Medicare would modestly reduce geographic variation in spending.

Home healthcare transition from hospitals for diabetic Medicare home healthcare beneficiaries can be improved by identifying risk factors for 30-day readmissions due to ambulatory care—sensitive conditions.

The patient-centered medical home is being adopted to improve patient experiences of care. However, the authors observed no impact of medical home implementation on veterans' care experiences.

Quality of care and relative resource use for patients with diabetes are not necessarily positively related. Further, the relationship varies by year, plan type, and region.

Although patients who refuse post acute care services are relatively young, well educated, and healthy, they are twice as likely to have 30- and 60-day readmissions compared with acceptors of services.

Focusing on quality and quality measurements has the potential to reduce costs, increase quality, and deliver more value to patients, consumers, and customers.