December 2017

The authors observed a marked shift toward treatment of higher-risk subsets of younger postmenopausal women (with prior fracture and/or with osteoporosis), and away from women at lower risk.

Universal gene expression profiling of patients with stage II breast cancer resulted in outpatient savings of $11,000 (inclusive of testing costs) within 6 months of initiation of medical therapy.

Findings suggest that some at-risk patients may not be receptive to in-home transition interventions and that opting out may be associated with higher odds of hospital readmission.

This study examined emergency department use by Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities in safety-net clinics that have adopted the patient-centered medical home model compared with matched comparison beneficiaries.

Adherence to clinical guidelines in practice is often suboptimal and controversial. This study compares actual statin utilization and cost with full adoption of major clinical guidelines in a real-world population.

Implementation of the Quality Blue Primary Care program in Louisiana was associated with a shift in primary care delivery and reductions in overall cost.

Results of our pilot randomized controlled intervention involving emergency department (ED)-based care coordination and community health workers demonstrated a trend toward fewer ED visits, fewer hospitalizations, and lower costs among intervention patients.

Transformative therapies with high up-front costs will exacerbate the need to address gaps between payers when costs and benefits occur at different times.

Patients in practices with central population health coordinators had greater improvement in short-term chronic disease outcome measures compared with patients in practices without central support.

Amending regulations to expand the “safe harbor” by allowing predeductible coverage of high-value services and medications for chronic diseases would provide Americans a plan option that better meets their clinical and financial needs.

Switching to a consumer-directed health plan is associated with reduced overall outpatient spending, but not with reduced spending on low-value healthcare services.