August 2017

Geographic variation in healthcare spending and utilization within the Military Health System is higher and significantly correlated with Medicare across hospital referral regions.

Placing formulary restrictions on brand name drugs shifts use toward generics, lowers the cost per prescription fill, and has minimal impact on overall adherence for antidiabetes, antihyperlipidemia, and antihypertension medications among low-income subsidy recipients in Medicare Part D plans.

This lifetime economic analysis demonstrates vagal nerve blocking therapy to be a cost-effective alternative to conventional therapy in class 2 and 3 obesity patients.

The authors examined 2 high-risk classification methods to compare and contrast the patient populations, and to identify the preferred method for predicting subsequent emergency department visits.

Among patients admitted for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at Veterans Affairs hospitals, hospital-level length of stay was not associated with 30-day readmission.

This study found that brand price at launch and generic entry overstates long-run average pharmaceutical costs, with and without accounting for medical cost offsets.

A primary care redesign program embedding care coordinators into practices slightly improves the patient experience and does not disrupt team dynamics.

The Hospital-in-Home program implemented at the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care System in Honolulu, Hawaii, is associated with reduced costs with no compromise in quality.

Technology innovation drives expenditures. A Michigan Medicine, IBM, and AirStrip partnership demonstrates the hospital’s role in developing transformative technologies that deliver value.

In a multicenter cohort of patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary hypertension, increased risk for mortality among African Americans was no longer observed after adjusting for insurance status.