NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Professional medical societies don't often consider costs when they're developing their treatment guidelines for specific conditions, according to a new study. Researchers found that just over half of the top medical societies with at least 10,000 members considered costs when developing best practices. The other half either implicitly considered costs or didn't address them at all. "Even when they said they looked at costs, they didn't seem to have a clear, consistent or rigorous way to do so," said Dr. Steven Pearson, the study's senior author and a visiting scientist in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
When Medicare payment rates for hospital inpatient care are cut, do insurers end up paying more? A new study published Monday in Health Affairs finds they don't — contradicting the well-known "cost shifting" theory. And the study contends that doing away with the health care law's cuts to Medicare payment rates would actually make insurers' costs increase more quickly. Chapin White, a senior health researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, analyzed data on payment rates from 1995-2009 and found a widening gap between Medicare rates and private rates. Medicare had an average annual growth rate of 3 percent while private insurance grew more quickly — at 3.56 percent — he found.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Tuesday he has lifted his hold on one of President Obama's top healthcare nominees. Harkin had placed a hold on the nomination of Marilyn Tavenner, whom Obama tapped to lead the agency that oversees Medicare, Medicaid and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Harkin was upset about cuts the administration has made to the healthcare law's prevention and public health fund. He reiterated those objections during a floor speech Tuesday but said he would allow Tavenner's nomination to move forward. "I don't know who's advising the president on this, but I think the president is getting bad advice," Harkin said of the prevention fund.
A study comparing low-income people in Oregon who received access to Medicaid over the past two years with those who did not, found that those on Medicaid visited doctors and hospitals more often, suffered less from depression and were more financially secure. That said, the Medicaid recipients saw little average improvement in blood pressure, blood sugar and other measures. Some have said the study demonstrates that by focusing on routine care, such health insurance provides meager results at great cost. Should health insurance, particularly government programs, provide only catastrophic coverage?
HIPAA and outdated communications devices can make it harder to deliver effective patient care, according to a survey of physicians, hospital administrators and IT pros. The survey by the Ponemon Institute is based on responses from 577 healthcare and IT professionals in organizations that ranged from fewer than 100 beds to more than 500. Fifty-one percent of respondents say HIPAA compliance requirements can be a barrier to providing effective patient care. Specifically, HIPAA reduces time available for patient care (according to 85% of respondents), makes access to electronic patient information difficult (79%) and restricts the use of electronic communications (56%).
A top official at Parkland Memorial Hospital acknowledged Tuesday that construction costs for the replacement hospital were $16 million over budget as currently approved. It was the first time anyone from Parkland has admitted that the $1.27 billion hospital was running over budget. Dallas County taxpayers have approved $747 million for the new hospital with the remainder of the cost coming from hospital reserve funds and private donations. Walter "Ted" Shaw, the hospital's interim chief financial officer, acknowledged the expected shortfall during an update on the project to the Dallas County Commissioners Court.