AJMC® in the Press, July 14, 2017

An article on PatientEngagementHIT.com covered the findings from research published in the June issue of The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®). The study, “Patient Ratings of Veterans Affairs and Affiliated Hospitals,” compared patient satisfaction with Veterans Affairs (VA) and other hospitals and found that the VA hospitals had significantly higher Yelp ratings. The PatientEngagementHIT.com article concluded that while online ratings may not capture all the nuance of a hospital experience, “there are also substantial benefits to patients being equipped with key information to help them make treatment decisions.”

Published by AME Info, an article on how to fight insurance fraud advised readers to confirm the reason for diagnostic tests or imaging in order to prevent overuse and cited AJMC^® research to support this tip. The referenced study, “Inappropriate Ordering of Lumbar Spine Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Are Providers Choosing Wisely?” (published in the February 2016 issue of AJMC^®) found that 31% of lumbar magnetic resonance imaging scans performed in 1 year were inappropriate.

Another study from the June issue of AJMC^® was summarized in an article by RevCycleIntelligence.com. “A Comparison of Retrospective Attribution Rules” explored the various methods of attributing patients to provider systems in terms of volume and stability. According to the summary, the researchers determined that “retrospective patient attribution models that use primary care visits as the method of identifying patients offered both increased assigned patients and stability.”