September 2012

September 14, 2012

High-risk drug use increased slightly among seniors gaining Medicare Part D coverage; however, high-risk drugs account for a small share of total drug use.

September 14, 2012

Physicians' and nurses' assessments of the frequency and harm of incidents can be a supplemental method to study patient safety in the primary care office.

September 14, 2012

Early initiation of maintenance medication in patients with moderate to severe COPD exacerbations is associated with reduced risk of future exacerbations and lower costs.

September 14, 2012

Our age-adjusted evaluation found that IVR calls had little impact on antidepressant medication adherence rates and that rates generally increased markedly with increasing age.

September 14, 2012

To analyze value of low-acuity care, an existing model is adapted to highlight factors impacting how stakeholders assess emergency department care compared with alternatives.

September 19, 2012

Higher incomes, higher comorbidity scores, and more advanced cancer were associated with outpatient-shopping behavior in Taiwanese patients.

September 19, 2012

Increased expenditures in US asthma are driven by increased medication spending that are not offset by decreases in emergency department and hospital spending.

September 19, 2012

We examined the impact of clinical complexity defined by comorbidity count and illness burden on comprehensive diabetes care, including blood pressure, glycemic, and lipid management.

September 19, 2012

Managed care organizations have the opportunity to identify potential opioid misuse and implement care coordination interventions, which can enhance safety and streamline patient pain management.

September 20, 2012

State-level estimates of the number of people treated for cancer and the average cost of their treatment by state from 2010 through 2020.

September 20, 2012

Patient-centered medical home practices provided better preventive care and disease management with less resource utilization than practices not pursuing PCMH status.

September 20, 2012

Competitive bidding characterizes market-based proposals to control Medicare spending, but in this first empirical study of bidding in Medicare, we find that competition is lacking.

September 20, 2012

Modest increases in adherence to medication regimens among Medicare patients with heart failure were associated with lower Medicare spending in 3 major drug classes.