April 2015

May 15, 2015

The use of an 80% threshold or other binary cut point may be insufficient for characterizing the relationship between medication adherence and Medicare spending.

May 15, 2015

Venous thromboembolism during or after recent hospitalization for medical illness contributes a substantial economic burden to society across all hospital and ambulatory care delivered.

May 15, 2015

Functional status is an important predictor of an acute care readmission in patients who have had a unilateral hip fracture.

May 12, 2015

This study examines factors impacting the receipt of an outpatient colonoscopy by VA or non-VA providers in older veterans dually eligible for VA/Medicare benefits.

May 11, 2015

Only 1.2% of community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries who received hospital-based observation services in 2010 were discharged to an SNF not covered by Medicare.

May 07, 2015

Older adults who prefer to delegate insurance decisions tend to be female and married, to have less Medicare knowledge, and to have someone in their lives they trust to make decisions for them.

May 07, 2015

Explanations for, and implications of, the sharp contrast between the results of randomized and nonrandomized trials of care management to lower total healthcare costs are examined.

April 22, 2015

Telephone nursing advice for home care offers an effective and clinically appropriate way to manage upper respiratory infection symptoms for adult members of a large integrated health plan.

April 21, 2015

This study describes the small number of individuals responsible for larger shares of healthcare cost persistently over a 3-year period.

April 21, 2015

The authors report on a conceptual "specialty ACO" design in cardiology in which cardiology-specific historic spending targets are created to capture cardiovascular disease—related reimbursement and a quality measurement system is introduced.

April 21, 2015

A qualitative study to understand clinical providers' attitudes and beliefs about polypharmacy and their perceived barriers to and facilitators of appropriate medication discontinuation.

April 21, 2015

There are concerns that retail clinics provide inferior quality of care. The authors found no difference in quality among retail clinics, physician offices, and emergency departments.

April 15, 2015

Innovations are powering the evolution of patient-centered care, and health plans are at the center of this innovation story.