Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen
At least 28 former Max Baucus aides are now tax lobbyists.
Obama to health insurance executives: We are now “joined at the hip.”
Return emergency room visits after discharge not counted in readmission rates.
Tag: "emergency room"
Apr 15, 2013 | 6 comments | by John Goodman
So How Well Do Hospital Employees Take Care of Themselves?
The study conducted by Truven Health Analytics, formerly an affiliate of Thomson Reuters, examined the relative health of about 350,000 employees at 200 hospitals nationwide. They were compared against the health of 12 million workers in other sectors. The results were sobering: Healthcare spending for hospital employees was 9 percent higher than in other job sectors. Hospital employees also had higher emergency room utilization rates and were 5 percent more likely than other workers to wind up hospitalized themselves. That’s despite the fact they are on average two years younger than workers in other sectors.
Source: FierceHealthFinance.
Oct 25, 2012 | 9 comments | by John Goodman
NYT Finds Privatized Health Care It Likes
It’s efficient
Emergency room use has been reduced by 50 percent, hospital admissions by 53 percent, specialty care visits by 65 percent and visits to primary care doctors by 36 percent.
It’s high quality
Patients are virtually guaranteed a doctor’s appointment on the day they request it, and their calls are answered quickly, usually within 30 seconds. The percentage of children receiving high-quality care for asthma has soared from 35 percent to 85 percent, the percentage of infants receiving needed immunizations by age 2 has risen above 90 percent, the percentage of diabetics with blood sugar under control ranks in the top 10 percentile of a standard national benchmark, and customer and employee satisfaction rates top 90 percent.
It’s definitely not following ObamaCare guidelines
Southcentral has unique attributes (it even refers cases to traditional tribal healers if doctors agree).
Full editorial on Alaska’s successful health care system.
Aug 01, 2012 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
More Evidence on Priceless
Three years after the Massachusetts’ health reform began, a study found the percent of people reporting they could not get needed care from specialists was little changed (7.1% vs. 7.0%). There was also no change in the percentage who said they visited an emergency room for a condition that could have been treated in a physician’s office. Now a new study finds that low income patients have much more difficulty getting access to care:
Compared with the privately insured, a significantly higher proportion of patients with Medicaid or Commonwealth Care Type 1 [subsidized insurance] reported delaying or not getting dental care (42.2 % vs. 27.1 %) or medication (30.0 % vs. 7.0 %) due to cost; those with Medicaid also experienced cost-related barriers to seeing a specialist (14.6 % vs. 3.5 %) or getting recommended tests (15.6 % vs. 5.9 %). HT: Sarah Kliff.
Jul 30, 2012 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
Is the ED the Hospital’s Cash Cow?
Growing use of U.S. emergency departments (EDs), cited as a key contributor to rising health care costs, has become a leading target of health care reform. ED visit rates increased by more than a third between 1997 and 2007…The number of hospital admissions increased by 15.0%, from 34.3 million in 1993 to 39.5 million in 2006; admissions from the ED increased by 50.4%, from 11.5 million to 17.3 million. The proportion of all inpatient stays involving admission from the ED increased from 33.5 to 43.8%.
Source: NEJM.
Jul 16, 2012 | 3 comments | by John Goodman
Remember How ObamaCare Insures the Uninsured
About half of the newly insured will be in Medicaid. Here is the California Health Care Foundation’s survey of California Medicaid patients, as summarized by Chris Jacobs:
- More than two in five (42%) California adults in Medicaid had difficulty getting an appointment with a specialist, compared to 24% with private coverage.
- Nearly half (47%) of all beneficiaries in poor health said it was difficult to find specialists accepting their insurance—a rate more than twice as high as those adults with other health coverage (23%).
- More than one-third (34%) of all California Medicaid enrollees in excellent, very good, or good health were forced to make a trip to the emergency room in the past 12 months, compared to just 14% of those with other coverage.
- More than half (55%) of all Medicaid enrollees in fair or poor health visited the emergency room at least once in the past year, compared to only one-quarter (25%) of those in poor health with other coverage.
Jun 11, 2012 | 3 comments | by John Goodman
Dropping Health Insurance, and Other Links
Consultants to employers: drop health insurance.
Does the president have an “enemies list”?
A tribute to Milton Friedman. HT: Greg Mankiw.
Hospital debt collectors catch deadbeats in the emergency room and in hospital beds.
May 01, 2012 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
BREAKING: HHS Proposes Delaying ICD-10 Deadline to Oct. 1, 2014
Until then, emergency rooms around the country will just have to guess between W22.02XA and W22.02XD.
W22.02XA is the code for “walked into lamppost, initial encounter.”
W22.02XD is the code for “walked into lamppost, subsequent encounter.”
Entire article in Modern Healthcare worth reading.
Apr 10, 2012 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
A $5,000 Tummy Ache
The cost for just walking in the door of the emergency room? That came to $1,288. The ultrasound nicked him an additional $1,135. A comprehensive metabolic panel (blood analysis) was billed at $1,212. Moser was also charged $158, accidentally, for the saline solution he had turned down. The total came to $4,852.55, not counting separate bills that would arrive later and total nearly $1,000, including $540 for pathology and $309 for the doctor.
Source: Steve Lopez in the LA Times. HT: Jason Shafrin.
Apr 04, 2012 | 11 comments | by John Goodman
