Health analysts agree that it's time for the patient to start being more of a consumer. Obamacare, controls on Medicare spending, cutting back on malpractice litigation, more preventive care and even healthier lifestyles have all been touted as ways to cut costs in the health-care system. But together they've made little more than a dent in the ever-rising cost of health care, which has been outpacing inflation for decades. Mark Smith, 61, a self-employed documentary and commercial producer in Jersey City, N.J., has been paying for an individual policy for his family for several years. He says he's been seeing 16% increases in his premiums every year, sometimes more.
North Carolina is nearing a deadline to post a wide range of hospital procedure cost information, but right at the finish line, the state's largest insurer has issued an objection, saying the information – in this form at least – should not be released. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina asks that state health officials hold off on disclosing thousands of bits of hospital claims data, arguing it would divulge Blue Cross trade secrets and not provide useful data to consumers. In 2013, the N.C. General Assembly passed a health care transparency bill that requires hospitals to report to the state what they are paid for the 100 most frequently reported admissions by DRG – Diagnosis Related Group, how hospitals categorize care.
Dr. Susheel Kodali kept his gaze fixed on the four monitors suspended above the patient he was operating on at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center's Heart Valve Center. "You see, one of the keys to this procedure is imaging, because we're not opening the chest, so we use all modalities available including X-Ray and echo," he said. Kodali and his team have performed more than 1,200 transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures just like this one, more than any other institution in the U.S., since TAVR was approved by the FDA three years ago. It's a non-invasive alternative to heart surgery that replaces the aortic valve, responsible for pumping blood out of the heart, via a narrow tube called a catheter.
In the last four fiscal years, California hospitals have reported more than 6,000 adverse events to the California Department of Public Health, but the number of actual adverse events could be higher, according to an NBC Bay Area investigative report. As many as 400,000 U.S. residents die annually from adverse events at hospitals, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Patient Safety. Under California law, hospitals are required to report adverse events to DPH, which publishes them in an annual report. Hospital names, dates that the events occurred and fines are not revealed in the report. According to NBC Bay Area, DPH conducts on-site inspections in response to hospitals reporting adverse events.
The increased use of health IT among providers could reduce the number of patients physicians are able to see, according to a study published in the American Journal of Managed Care. The study was based on survey responses from primary care physicians in Michigan. The survey -- by the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation and the University of Michigan Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit -- was conducted between October 2012 and December 2012 and included a total of 739 respondents. The study found that physicians used a mean of 5.1 health IT services. The most commonly used health IT service was electronic prescribing, while a Web portal for patients to schedule appointments was the least common.
The Obama administration is keeping a tight lid on most figures related to the performance of HealthCare.gov, a practice that drew criticism during the site's failed launch last year. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported Saturday that 500,000 people logged on to the site, and 100,000 submitted applications, but most other statistics remain private as the system enters its fifth day back online. The federal exchange appears to be functioning well in its second year, with only a few glitches temporarily hampering users. Still, information available about the system's functionality pales in comparison to what Massachusetts health officials release about that state's exchange, which inspired the Affordable Care Act.