All articles tagged: Medical economics

Vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus for adults over 60 is likely to be cost-effective by preventing illness, hospitalizations, lost quality of life and deaths, according to new research.

The nurses came to make a point. Many dressed in red and carried signs. Their message to the federal government: End what they say is a national hiring freeze that has led to thousands of vacancies across the veterans' health system, affecting patient care.

Time from approval to reimbursement of new drugs varies between countries and is shortest in Switzerland and Germany, both of which include health technology assessment decisions that are not used in the United States, according to a study published online Sept. 3 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Over the past decade the number of NHS general practices in England has shrunk by 20%, but patient list sizes have expanded by 40% to just under 10,000, on average, finds an analysis of three national primary care datasets, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

One in three dying people in England and Wales was severely or overwhelmingly affected by pain in the last week of life, with bereaved people reporting how difficult it was to get joined-up support from health and care professionals at home.

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games has a record number of broadcasters in more than 160 countries and territories. Viewing figures are expected to top the Tokyo 2020 Games, which was shown in 154 countries and attracted 4.1 billion viewers—half the global population.

Garret Frey refuses to be sidelined. Frey has been paralyzed from the neck down for more than 37 of his 42 years. He has spent decades rejecting the government's excuses when he and others with disabilities are denied the support they need to live in their own homes and to participate in society.

Male doctors from abroad are much less likely than their British counterparts to be promoted to consultant in the NHS since the pandemic began, new research shows. However, women doctors are catching up with male British doctors in the rate they are promoted, the study shows.

A large polio vaccination campaign started in war-torn Gaza on Sunday, September 1. The initiative, which is being led by the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to reach over 640,000 children under the age of ten.

What do you do when you disagree with or can't afford a medical bill?

A decade ago, federal officials drafted a plan to discourage Medicare Advantage health insurers from overcharging the government by billions of dollars—only to abruptly back off amid an "uproar" from the industry, newly released court filings show.

New research from the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, is helping to identify barriers to physical activity in nurses. Published in PLOS ONE, the study reports that the key factors influencing exercise include intrinsic motivation, certain types of soci

Only one-fourth of family physicians report being very satisfied with their electronic health record (EHR), according to a study published online Aug. 29 in JAMA Network Open.

Many people who receive a problematic medical bill don't challenge it—but new USC Schaeffer Center research shows they are likely missing out on a chance for financial relief.

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is not associated with altered frailty trajectories compared with enrollment in Traditional Medicare (TM), according to research published in JAMA Network Open.

People with chronic liver disease (CLD) have a higher likelihood of barriers to health care, according to a study recently published in Gastro Hep Advances.

Health care is undoubtedly crucial for everyone. As individuals age, the risk for health issues and related expenses increases. Consequently, many countries have universal health care systems, primarily funded through tax and insurance, to ensure access to essential health care services.

Slow growth in health sector spending is projected in Sub-Saharan Africa as reported in a study published in the open access journal, PLOS Global Public Health. The decline is expected to continue to 2050, according to Angela E Apeagyei and researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, and is driven by tepid growth in the share of government spe

Researchers at the University of Liverpool and the University of Oxford have for the first time been able to estimate the current burden of Lassa fever, project the impacts of a Lassa fever vaccination program and demonstrate how it may help avoid the next pandemic. The study is published in Nature Medicine.

Noor Shaik rushed to the bedside of a patient with severe diabetes complications, who had remained upbeat while undergoing surgery to address a foot infection.

Ed Whitehouse stood alongside a state highway in rural Butts County, Georgia, and surveyed acres of rolling fields and forests near Interstate 75. Instead of farmland and trees, he envisioned a hospital.

Federal regulators have blocked two private sector enrollment websites from accessing consumer information through the federal Obamacare marketplace, citing "anomalous activity."

Providing home automation for people with disabilities brings about substantial social benefits and represents a sound investment for funding agencies such as the NDIS, a new analysis has revealed.

More than 23 million Americans who were granted Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic lost their coverage starting in March 2023 after the pandemic was declared no longer a public health emergency. Many likely will not successfully re-enroll on their own given Medicaid's administrative burden—the frustrations and challenges people often encounter in seeking or complying with coverage.

Already having a high rate of in-work poverty, care workers are now worse off in real terms than they were two years ago and should be given pay parity with equivalent NHS roles, according to new research.

A new study led by the University of Southampton has found that using temporary nursing staff to fill rotas only partially combats an increased risk of patient death associated with staff shortages.

For Roderick Givens, a radiation oncologist, the expansion of Medicaid isn't just a policy issue. He practices medicine in a rural area in the Mississippi Delta and he sees daily how Medicaid coverage could help his uninsured patients.

The monetary value of the substantial time that informal caregivers in Singapore spend looking after seniors aged 75 years and above, comes up to around S$1.28 billion annually—equivalent to about 11% of the government's expenditure on health care. This is according to a Duke-NUS Medical School study, which is the first to estimate the monetary value of informal caregiving in the context of senior

A bill pending in California's legislature to ratchet up oversight of private equity investments in health care is receiving enthusiastic backing from consumer advocates, labor unions and the California Medical Association, but drawing heavy fire from hospitals concerned about losing a potential funding source.

The potential sale of Palmetto General, North Shore Medical Center and other Florida hospitals has been delayed.

Members of the LGBTQI+ population experience less access to health care, worse health outcomes, and higher rates of uninsurance than their counterparts, research has shown. To expand coverage and address health care disparities affecting LGBTQI+ populations, some U.S. lawmakers have proposed lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60.

There is a growing movement to promote greener policies to achieve greater environmental sustainability in hospitals and other health care facilities. Yet without accurate, meaningful metrics to measure progress, advocates warn, such policies and practices are likely to be less effective.

In a national Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, the prevalence of homebound is 22 percent, and homebound status is independently associated with increased health service use and mortality, according to a study published online Aug. 13 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

New research shows how the chief resident position in academic internal medicine residency programs has evolved over the past 20 years, revealing how the position has changed, the types of careers these individuals pursue, and improvement in gender representation.

A paper in the International Journal of Health care Technology and Management has highlighted the potential benefits of adopting a new approach to collaboration in eHealth initiatives. The approach suggested by Maria Qvarfordt, Stefan Lagrosen, and Lina Nilsson of Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden, braids together the four strands of stakeholder relationships—academia, business, the public sec

It's not easy to make public health decisions without access to good data. And epidemiologists and public health workers for Native American communities say they're often in the dark because state and federal agencies restrict their access to the latest numbers.

Telehealth has been touted as one solution to New Zealand's ongoing health-care crisis, which is particularly stark in rural regions.

As regional Australia continues to struggle with workforce shortages in allied health professions, Flinders University researchers are looking to uncover what support and programs are needed to keep people living and working in rural and remote positions.

During COVID-19, Sweden's ability to manage crises and production planning in health care came into focus. Neither regional management nor hospital directors had any experience with a pandemic.

Vast swaths of the nation, both urban and rural, are deemed "food deserts" due to their reduced access to a variety of healthy and inexpensive food. Often, people living in food deserts also experience higher poverty levels.

Three high-impact steps could be taken by global health leaders to reshape the global regulatory framework and help address the pressing need for equitable access to diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines during public health emergencies, according to a Georgetown global health law expert and a medical student.

Prior authorization—the process by which a health insurance company denies or approves coverage for a health care service before the service is performed—became standard practice beginning with Medicare and Medicaid legislation in the 1960s.

Remote health care delivery, commonly known as telehealth or telemedicine, is often beneficial for patients who have difficulty visiting their preferred health care providers in person. Use of the technology was rising steadily in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic and it has now become commonplace.

In a year-long pilot program, external mentorship increased confidence, furthered career development, and facilitated networking opportunities for trainees in classical hematology, according to a study published in Blood Advances.

As Australia's health system struggles with the growing burden of preventable disease, new analysis published today provides important insights into government research funding that is designed to help keep Australians healthy and out of hospitals.

New Zealand's health system is grappling with a severe workforce shortage. Media reports frequently highlight individuals and families being unable to access timely health care, exacerbated by a shortage of general practitioners (GPs) and overflowing emergency departments.

The National Education Association, the nation's largest union, reversed course July 26, on its threat to cut off health insurance to about 300 Washington, D.C.-based workers in an effort to end a bitter contract dispute.

New Zealanders' first point of contact for health care—their general practice—is increasingly harder to reach, to the detriment of the overall health system.

Last week, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration added intravenous (IV) fluids to the growing list of medicines in short supply. The shortage is due to higher-than-expected demand and manufacturing issues.

It wasn't long ago that health clinics in retail grocery stores and pharmacies were the next big thing in health care.

A study from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy reveals that CEO salaries for nonprofit hospitals and health care systems increased significantly from 2012 to 2019. The study, "The Determinants of Nonprofit CEO Compensation," is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Whether because of age or disability, California adults who require assistance with day-to-day activities like bathing, getting dressed or transportation to stores and appointments reported their health as worse overall and experience higher rates of serious psychological distress, according to a new study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Health insurance agents who fraudulently enroll consumers in Affordable Care Act health plans could be subject to criminal charges—and civil penalties of $10,000 to $200,000—under legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

Dr. Ali Rida said he became a primary care doctor because he wanted to care for his patients at the most fundamental level. But a year and a half later, he left.

Looking for a Medicare Advantage plan with a five-star quality rating? You're less likely to find one available to you if you live in a county with higher poverty and unemployment, finds a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

Nearly one of every five uninsured working-age adults across the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are, according to a new analysis, stuck in a health care limbo known as a "coverage gap." That means they earn too much money to receive Medicaid but not enough to qualify for financial help to purchase their own plan on the marketplace.

When patients in mental health crises get stuck in Minnesota's emergency rooms, they stay 25 hours longer on average than necessary—taking up hospital space as well as the time of doctors and nurses, who could otherwise focus on the next emergencies.

They distribute GPS devices so they can track their homeless patients. They stock their street kits with glass pipes used to smoke meth, crack, or fentanyl. They keep company credit cards on hand in case a patient needs emergency food or water, or an Uber ride to the doctor.

When Dr. David Wallace graduated from medical school in 1995, every visit note, prescription and lab request had to be written by hand.

When then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for nearly all Californians to buy health insurance or face a penalty, Anthony Wright slammed the 2007 proposal as "unwarranted, unworkable, and unwise"—one that would punish those who could least afford coverage. The head of Health Access California, one of the state's most influential consumer groups, changed course only after he and his allies extract

Colorado stands out among the 10 states that have disenrolled the highest share of Medicaid beneficiaries since the U.S. government lifted a pandemic-era restriction on removing people from the health insurance program.

For hours, John Pernorio repeatedly mashed the call button at his bedside in the Heritage Hills nursing home in Rhode Island. A retired truck driver, he had injured his spine in a fall on the job decades earlier and could no longer walk. The antibiotics he was taking made him need to go to the bathroom frequently. But he could get there only if someone helped him into his wheelchair.

A new study by pediatric researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) found that children take their hypertension (high blood pressure) medication more consistently when they receive a 90-day prescription fill from the pharmacy rather than a 30-day one, resulting in improved health outcomes.

Telehealth availability for mental health services has declined since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, according to a study published online July 10 in JAMA Network Open.

Not all versions of Medicare are created equal—and when it comes to end-of-life care, some versions may serve a patient's needs better than others. That's the focus of newly published research by Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Ph.D., MPP, a University of Colorado Department of Medicine and CU Cancer Center health economist, and her colleagues.

Australians currently spend about two years in residential aged care and this is projected to gradually decline by 2040, according to new Macquarie Business School research published in the Journal of Population Research.

The largest private company that brokers use to enroll people in Affordable Care Act health plans said it's joining with insurers to thwart unauthorized Obamacare sign-ups and plan switches.

Nurses in Michigan reported improved conditions in the 2023 Michigan Nurses' Study compared to 2022, but burnout and understaffing remain high, and nearly half reported abuse in the workplace in the last year.

Imagine you're 90 years old, a grandmother of three and your husband is also elderly and ailing. You need help with almost everything: getting out of a chair, going to the bathroom, getting dressed, eating and remembering your medications. Despite advances in life expectancy, aging has not been kind, and you feel like a burden to your husband and the health care professionals who care for you.

The equivalent to the 15-minute city in rural areas is the 45-minute territory. These are areas where the inhabitants can access everything they need for a good quality of life in 45 minutes, either on foot or by bicycle.

The percentage of Americans who can afford and access prescription drugs and quality health care stands at a new low of 55%, a six-point decline since 2022, according to the West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index. The index was developed in 2021 to track the percentage of Americans who say they have avoided medical care or not filled prescription medications in the last three months and

As part of a nationwide trend, many more of NYU Langone Health's patients during the pandemic started using electronic health record tools to ask their doctors questions, refill prescriptions, and review test results. Many patients' digital inquiries arrived via a communications tool called In Basket, which is built into NYU Langone's electronic health record (EHR) system, EPIC.

Imagine waiting weeks or months for your wheelchair's battery or custom cushions to be replaced. This is the situation throughout Canada that thousands of people with disabilities face not only in relation to wheelchairs, but also other assistive devices, including hearing aids and insulin pumps.

Alcohol has long held a hallowed place in the consciousness of Canadian society. A more socially acceptable drug than some others, it's associated with relaxation, socializing and celebration. As a result, alcohol has received an almost free pass when it comes to changes in policy and public opinion.

For patients who are in the final stages of both gradual and sudden terminal illnesses, hospice care can provide safe, comfortable, and dignified care at the end of life. However, many patients, especially those with complex diseases and treatments, may end up in an emergency department (ED) and either die there or die shortly after being admitted into inpatient care at a hospital, despite their g

"You had to pay the fee, or the doctor wasn't going to see you anymore."

We've seen countless media reports in recent days, weeks and months about the ramping of ambulances at hospital emergency departments (EDs) around Australia.

Pandemic-associated physician revenue recovery in 2021 and 2022 varied by specialty and practice type, according to a study published in the July issue of Health Affairs.

Promotional events sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry that target health professionals responsible for prescribing medications, such as physicians and nurse practitioners, are a key component of promotional campaigns for new drugs and devices.

The mean cost of developing a new drug for the U.S. market is estimated to be $879.3 million when both drug development failure and capital costs are considered, according to a study published online June 28 in JAMA Network Open.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tells staff leaving for industry jobs that, despite restrictions on post-employment lobbying, they are still permitted to influence the agency, reveals an investigation by The BMJ.

In March 2021, this town of about 2,000 residents in the hills of east Tennessee lost its hospital, a 54-bed acute care facility. Campbell County, where Jellico is located, ranks 90th of Tennessee's 95 counties in health outcomes and has a poverty rate almost double the national average, so losing its health care cornerstone sent ripple effects through the region.

In a survey of low-income adults across Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, one in eight respondents who were enrolled in Medicaid at some point since March 2020 reported no longer having Medicaid coverage by late 2023, with nearly half of that pool reporting being currently uninsured, according to a study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

New analysis has revealed many Australian aged care residents are not receiving the levels of care they need and are entitled to.

Abigail Arellano keeps her son Samuel's medical bills in a blue folder in a cabinet above the microwave. Even now, four months after the 11-year-old was shot at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade, the bills keep coming.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, state lawmakers, and health industry leaders have a small window to reach an agreement on billions of new dollars for Medi-Cal before it's put to voters in November.

From sleeping rough in parklands to skipping medical appointments, the additional burden of out-of-pocket health care expenditure (OOPHE) is widening the health care gap for Aboriginal households in rural and remote regions.

Deloitte, a global consultancy that reported revenue last year of $65 billion, pulls in billions of dollars from states and the federal government for supplying technology it says will modernize Medicaid.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concludes that the current evidence is insufficient for recommending screening for food insecurity in the primary care setting. These findings form the basis of a draft recommendation statement published online June 25.

Fewer GP appointments and the COVID lockdown have exacerbated declining continuity of care in English general practices.

A researcher at the University of Missouri has developed a program that improves the quality of care and reduces avoidable hospitalizations in nursing homes—saving Missouri nursing homes and Medicare millions of dollars and allowing Missouri nursing homes to invest more in retaining their most skilled staff members. The program is so successful that it's being recommended for use in all 50 states.

Smart medical is the product of the deep integration of the health care service industry and information technology. With the advent of new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, along with the support of government policies, the application scope of smart health care continues to expand.

For Diana Perez, a medical resident at the Family Health Center of Harlem, the handwritten thank-you note she received from a patient is all the evidence she needs that she has chosen the right training path.

New data analysis by University of Bath and Lund University academics reveals that public health in the UK could be undermined by a failing system of drug company self-regulation. The research shows that drug companies are consistently violating their industry code of practice in drug marketing.

Locals in this city of 58,000 are used to having to wait at railroad crossings for one of the dozens of daily cargo trains to pass through.

The government's austerity spending cuts cost the average person in the UK nearly half a year in life expectancy between 2010 and 2019, according to a new working paper published by the London School of Economics and Political Science's (LSE) International Inequalities Institute and written by researchers at LSE and King's College London.

Australia loses 41,194 work years annually due to work-related injury, disease and mental health conditions, a new measure of the national burden of workplace injury and illness has found.

Thousands of Missourians with mental health disabilities are unnecessarily trapped in nursing homes against their will because of systemic failures by the state, according to a scalding report from the Department of Justice.

A study published in Medical Care shows that substituting registered nurses (RN) with lower-wage staff (e.g. licensed practical nurses, unlicensed assistive personnel) in hospital care is linked with more deaths, readmissions, longer hospital stays, poorer patient satisfaction, and higher costs of care.

A first-of-its-kind study found high rates of food insecurity, housing insecurity, financial strain, and/or a lack of transportation among patients at federally qualified health centers, particularly patients who were low-income or from racial/ethnic minority populations.

In a recently published opinion piece in BMJ Open, "Rhetoric of Research: A Call for Renaming the Clinical Research Partnership," authors from Penn Nursing and Georgetown University School of Nursing, present a compelling argument for rethinking the language used to describe participants in clinical research. The opinion calls for a shift from the traditional term "patient participant" to "partici

Many physicians and nurses are happy about the Federal Trade Commission's new rule banning the use of noncompete agreements in employment contracts. But they are disappointed that it may not protect those who work for nonprofit hospitals and health care facilities, which provide most of the nation's care and employ the largest number of medical professionals.

Health care spending growth is projected to outpace that of the gross domestic product (GDP) during the coming decade, according to a study published online June 12 in Health Affairs.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw increased rates and public awareness of food insecurity. One group that was particularly vulnerable was older adults.

Colorado loosened regulations on medical aid in dying, made a mental health program for teens permanent and increased the penalties on EpiPen manufacturers who don't participate in an affordability program, among other changes to the health care landscape this legislative session.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal lawmakers launched the Affordable Connectivity Program with the goal of connecting more people to their jobs, schools, and doctors. More than 23 million low-income households eventually signed on. The program provided $30 monthly subsidies for internet bills, or $75 discounts in tribal or high-cost areas.

The Biden administration is pushing to prevent medical debt from being considered in most decisions made over whether someone qualifies to rent an apartment, buy a car or take on a mortgage.

Navigating the complexity of either Medicare or Medicaid is challenging. Those challenges are compounded for people enrolled in both programs.

Thanks to a new state law, Washingtonians with a medical cannabis card can get a break from the nation's highest tax on the drug.

After a 2020 dispute between Fresno's biggest health care system and a physicians group put in jeopardy the central San Joaquin Valley's only Level I trauma center status, the two sides have reached a settlement following a lawsuit.

After training as a nurse, Nevielle Leinyuy spent almost a decade in Cameroon working as a front desk receptionist because he was unable to find a decent paying job in the medical field. Last year, he gave up looking. He applied for a nursing program in Canada, where he now lives with his wife and children.

When Cassie Cox ended up in the emergency room in January, the Bainbridge, Georgia, resident was grateful for the Obamacare insurance policy she had recently selected for coverage in 2024.

A backlash against EDIA (equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility) is gripping Canadian medicine. This is no surprise for a historically conservative institution, but as a family physician who has dedicated more than 20 years to ensuring we address social inequities in front-line care, I worry our efforts to prioritize the health of those most socially marginalized could face a setback.

One of Montana's largest health clinics that serves people in poverty has cut back services and laid off workers. The retrenchment mirrors similar cuts around the country as safety-net health centers feel the effects of states purging their Medicaid rolls.

Concerns over the potential insolvency of Medicare among those under 65 have risen, with 73% now expressing worry that it won't be available when they need it, up from 67% in 2022, according to the new West Health-Gallup 2024 Survey on Aging in America. Worry rose most among those aged 50 to 64, up 13 percentage points to 74%. Higher percentages of adults express concern about the future of Social

A Tennessee agency that is supposed to hold accountable and grade the nation's largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly awards full credit on dozens of quality-of-care measurements as long as it reports any value—regardless of how its hospitals actually perform.

In an era of hospital budget cuts and staffing freezes, a Florida hospital more than doubled staff positions for infection prevention and control (IPC) over a four-year period, reducing infections and creating opportunities for non-clinical team members to enter the field and excel.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically improved health insurance coverage for millions of Americans who were automatically covered by Medicaid due to the national public health emergency.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is placing a big bet on the future of health care. By 2030, it plans to have all Medicare beneficiaries in accountable care organizations (ACOs), groups of doctors, hospitals and other service providers who adopt a reimbursement model called value-based care. Currently, ACOs serve nearly half of Americans with traditional Medicare, totaling 13.7 m

Los Angeles County has launched one of the most ambitious efforts in the nation to tackle medical debt, targeting hospitals for their role in feeding a $2.9 billion problem.

New research conducted with Washington, D.C. residents who experienced homelessness during pregnancy sheds light on the intersection of homelessness, pregnancy, and racial inequities. The findings underscore the urgent need for policy and practice changes to support vulnerable populations.

Health economist Olga Yakusheva, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, believes that current government reimbursement models incentivize hospitals to cut nursing jobs to save money.

Medicare Advantage (MA) is an increasingly popular source of Medicare coverage for all recipients, including individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups. Certain managed care strategies used in MA—such as prior authorization, gatekeeping for access to certain services or specialists, and narrow provider networks—may pose challenges in accessing care. This means the quality of MA-funded care

New York City's top health officials will have access to fewer than two dozen medical research journals, as the department has turned to outside funding for research articles following Adams administration budget cuts.

By 2022, the share of Americans without health insurance had reached a record low of just under 8%. More than half the U.S. population, an estimated 180 million individuals (or 55%), were covered by private health insurance. However, the financial burden of health care continues to contribute to stress, poverty, debt, bankruptcy and worse health outcomes even for those with private coverage.

Greater use of pharmacists to treat minor illnesses could potentially save millions of dollars in health care costs, according to new research led by Washington State University. The findings also indicate a way to improve health care access by expanding availability of pharmacists' clinical services, including prescribing medications, amid an ongoing shortage of primary care providers.

Some 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer's, and about 11 million provide unpaid care for them.

The Palm Beach Health Network has become the latest health provider accused of illegally sharing identities and private health information of its patients with the social media company Meta, owner of Facebook.

State officials have pumped nearly $400,000 into a program to review the vaccine records of families entering the emergency shelter system, including migrants from other countries who may have foreign documentation, according to the Healey administration.

Integration of pharmacies with physician practices, where on-site pharmacies open at physician practice locations, is a growing trend in cancer treatment. However, little is known about how this integration affects drug utilization or expenditures, along with other aspects of the patient experience.

A team, led by Lisa Rotenstein, MD, of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, sought to understand the impact of virtual scribes (human scribes who are not physically present in the exam room with the physician and patient) on how physicians spend their time and which characteristics are associated with physicians responding best to scribes. Their paper, "Virtual Scribes and P

Nurses who assess patients at emergency departments would like more training and say their decisions can be negatively impacted by the high pressures of their work.

Among the aims of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is reducing health care costs for older adults by eliminating cost sharing for certain drugs and vaccines covered by Medicare Part D. To help determine whether the impact matches the IRA's intent, a team led by Dima Qato—Hygeia Centennial Chair and Associate Professor at the USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences—evaluated the im

A new study found that Black Americans trail white Americans when it comes to financial stability in midlife, which may impact brain health in old age.

Philadelphia-area hospitals are rolling carts outfitted with video screens and virtual cameras into patient rooms with the hope that remote nurses can reduce patients' risk of falling, pulling out tubes, or hurting themselves another way.

The number of migrants applying to work in health and social care in Britain has plummeted since visa regulations were tightened, the government said on Wednesday.

Homelessness doesn't only happen to young people but also affects older adults in growing numbers, write authors in an analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) that describes this emerging crisis.

A new study from researchers at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington cautions that bringing back the $5 co-payment for prescription medicines could see a jump in hospital admissions.

Rutgers researchers, aided by international collaborators, have tracked the devastation war has made on Ukraine's hospital system.

Nearly 30,000 people last year were homeless when admitted to hospital and/or discharged from hospital, a first-of-its-kind Canadian analysis shows. Almost all of these inpatients were admitted following a visit to an emergency department, and the complexity of their illnesses meant they stayed twice as long as the national average.

A nationwide assessment of how nonprofit hospitals are addressing housing-related needs in their communities appears in the latest issue of Medical Care.

In a new study, a team developed and successfully tested a hybrid-virtual home visit model that provides care to veterans who do not live close to a VA health care facility. The work is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The declining population in Osaka is related to an aging society that is driving up health expenditures. Dr. Haruka Kato, a junior associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University, teamed up with the Future Co-creation Laboratory at Japan System Techniques Co., Ltd. to conduct natural experiments on how a new train station might impact health care expenditures.

For older adults hospitalized with a stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), social determinants of health (SDOH) are associated with use of skilled rehabilitation, according to a study published online May 10 in JAMA Network Open.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was a critical part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. However, on May 7, 2024, the European Commission announced the vaccine is no longer authorized for use.

Research from recent graduate Brock Santi of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) explored the link between COVID-19, insurance coverage, race, ethnicity and vaccination, shedding light on previously unexplored aspects of the pandemic's impact in Hawaiʻi.

A new study published in Population Health Management, which builds on previous work in the journal, describes the Academic Payvider model, a joint approach to care and coverage aimed at reforming the relationship between payers and providers to enhance value-based care.

If you worry that there are not enough health care providers to meet health needs, you are not alone. Seventy percent of Canadians worry about access to care. One factor affecting health-care access is a global nursing shortage.

Families of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities say Gov. Gavin Newsom is reneging on a scheduled raise for the workers who care for their loved ones, and advocates warn of potential lawsuits if disability services become harder to get.

More people are using online patient portals to view their information while in the emergency room, but access is challenging for members of medically underserved communities and the elderly, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and national colleagues found in a new study.

Even if you have health insurance, you might expect to be charged a copayment for some routine care, like office-based exams and consultations. But you probably don't expect to receive a bill a few weeks later charging you an extra $100 or more.

Private Medicaid health plans lost millions of members in the past year as pandemic protections that prohibited states from dropping anyone from the government program expired.

Insurance expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were linked with an increase in patients receiving care at accredited cancer hospitals in Pennsylvania, according to a study published in Health Services Research by University of Pittsburgh researchers.

From medical and dental care to medications, insurance and nursing homes, health-related costs weigh heavily on the minds of older Americans of all backgrounds, a new poll suggests.

If you needed long-term care, could you afford it? For many Americans, especially those with a middle-class income and little savings, the answer to that question is absolutely not.

A survey commissioned by King's College London, and carried out by YouGov, has found that 65% of people across the U.K. are worried about access to palliative and end of life care, and 41% think there is too little NHS resource allocated to palliative care.

Walmart is closing its health centers and virtual care service after struggling to find success with the offerings, the U.S. retailer said Tuesday.

A new Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute study found that physician reimbursement per Medicare patient decreased 2.3% between 2005 and 2021 when accounting for inflation, despite a concurrent increase of 45.5% in physician services to each patient.

Over the past three decades, hospital closures have been on the rise in both urban and rural areas. Real-life consequences take many forms: creating barriers to accessing medical care, increasing transport times and potentially leading to higher morbidity and mortality rates for time-sensitive conditions. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the issue as many areas faced dire shortages

In Humphreys County, Mississippi—about 70 miles north of the state capital, in the heart of the fertile Delta region—a third of the residents live in poverty. In Belzoni, the county seat, there are just a handful of health care clinics. The town's only major hospital closed more than a decade ago, around the same time its catfish industry collapsed.

For the past year, police Detective Tim Lillard has spent most of his waking hours unofficially investigating his wife's death.

A new study co-authored by a Yale economist provides evidence that insufficient antitrust enforcement in the U.S. hospital sector is contributing to reduced competition and higher prices for hospital care.

Proposed changes to the United States' Medicare and Medicaid programs could lead to thousands of additional deaths each year, a new Yale study reveals. The study was published April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

At least two-thirds of Medicare enrollees have two or more chronic health conditions, federal data shows. That makes them eligible for a federal program that, since 2015, has rewarded doctors for doing more to manage their health outside office visits.

A study analyzing Medicare data on low-value care (LVC) services, or services that provide little to no benefit relative to their potential cost, found that physicians were more strongly influenced by system-level factors that encourage a reduction of LVC and more resistant to factors that encourage an increase in LVC. In other words, physicians moving to locations with lower rates of LVC were mor

Available online tools can help to lower out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for patients with common urologic conditions, reports a study in the May issue of Urology Practice,.

Esther JeanBart leaned over her son's wheelchair, caressing his face and trying to make him giggle. Gianni JeanBart was under the weather, but still his eyes rolled toward her and his mouth widened, cracking a smile.

Nearly a half-million health workers who stand to benefit from California's nation-leading $25 minimum wage law could be in for a rude awakening if hospitals and other health care providers follow through on potential cuts to hours and benefits.

A wide-ranging lawsuit filed April 12 outlines a moneymaking scheme by which large insurance sales agency call centers enrolled people into Affordable Care Act plans or switched their coverage, all without their permission.

Working arrangements for locum doctors pose significant patient safety challenges for the NHS in England, although there are opportunities to be grasped too, finds qualitative research involving a broad spectrum of health professionals, published online in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety.

Age-related and contractual factors seem to be stronger drivers of NHS hospital clinical staff retention than organizational factors, suggests research published in the journal BMJ Open.

UnitedHealth Group spent about $872 million during the first quarter responding to the cyberattack at its Change Healthcare division and expects that full-year costs could reach $1.6 billion.

When American Advanced Management made a bid for the bankrupt Madera Community Hospital last year, many local officials and others involved in trying to reopen the facility didn't take the company seriously.

Nearly a quarter of Americans who lost their pandemic-era Medicaid coverage say they're now without any health insurance, a new survey finds.

Osceola resident Oscar Hernandez is scrambling to ensure his 16-year-old terminally ill son, Llarell, will continue to receive medical care.

Freestanding emergency departments (EDs)—either satellite branches of hospitals or independently operated facilities—have popped up across the country. Texas has the most, with 338 freestanding EDs as of May 2023, and these facilities handle nearly one-quarter of all emergency department visits in the state.

Childhood verbal abuse by adults costs society an estimated $300 billion (£239 billion) a year globally, show findings presented at the first international conference on childhood verbal abuse, hosted by UCL, Words Matter and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Some consumers covered by Affordable Care Act insurance plans are being switched from one plan to another without their express permission, potentially leaving them unable to see their doctors or fill prescriptions. Some face large IRS bills for back taxes.

When it comes to helping Americans manage rising health care costs, one increasingly popular policy stands out for both its simplicity and potential payoff: Buy up vast amounts of medical debt for pennies on the dollar and cancel it, thereby giving struggling families a break from one major stressor.

A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR)—published in JAMA Network Open—showed that, aside from retirements, poor working conditions are the leading reasons nurses leave health care employment. These study findings come at a time when hospital executives cite staffing problems as their most pressing concern.

In February, Norma Brambila's teenage daughter wrote her a letter she now carries in her purse. It is a drawing of a rose, and a note encouraging Brambila to "keep fighting" her sickness and reminding her she'd someday join her family in heaven.

From 2020 to 2022, there was an increase in enrollment in medical cannabis programs but a decrease in jurisdictions with nonmedical adult-use laws, according to a study published online April 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Despite vaccine shortages, many younger people in New York City accessed vaccines ahead of schedule, particularly in high-income areas, according to new research at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

A supportive workplace, work-life balance and a connection to rural communities are all key to retaining doctors in rural and remote areas of Australia, according to a new study from The Australian National University (ANU).

Black Americans living in Tuskegee, Alabama, closer to the location of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, were much slower to get their COVID-19 vaccines compared to white neighbors, according to a new study by University of Georgia researchers.

In the small Appalachian city of Bristol, Virginia, City Council member Neal Osborne left a meeting on the morning of Jan. 3 and rushed himself to the hospital.

Fifty million Americans are on a financing plan to pay off medical or dental bills, with one-quarter of those bearing some interest. Increasingly, medical payment products (MPPs)—which include credit cards and loans administered by hospitals, physician practices, or third-party companies—have come under scrutiny by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, U.S. Department of Health & Human Service

A study published in The Lancet Public Health suggests that, if current patterns in multimorbidity accumulation persist, there will be approximately a one-third (34%) increase in the prevalence of people living with multiple long-term conditions in 2049 compared with 2019.

Looking after the NHS workforce is not only an ethical imperative but also a sound investment and must be a top priority, say experts in the third report of The BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS.

Medi-Cal health coverage kicked in for Antonio Abundis just when the custodian needed it most.

Community health centers and organizations that primarily serve low-income people are being disproportionately hurt by the biggest hack in health care history, which has disrupted payments for thousands of health care providers for a month now.

Physicians who utilize artificial intelligence (AI)-generated draft replies to patient portal messages find the technology easy to adopt and use and beneficial to their overall well-being, according to a study published online March 20 in JAMA Network Open.

Every year, 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis. Even though the disease is both preventable and curable, it kills 1.5 million people each year, making it the world's deadliest infectious disease. Over 25% of these deaths occur in African countries. The World Health Organization has developed a strategy to reduce TB deaths by 95% by 2035. It's a monumental task. But, global health and inf

Physicians in Canada, especially male physicians, are working fewer hours than they did three decades ago, and these long-term trends must be considered in workforce planning, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Most patients report an increase in trust in the quality of their medical care if asked for permission to use their images for research or education, according to a research letter published online March 13 in JAMA Dermatology.

Giving GPs cameras to photograph skin complaints could help slash wait times for hospital appointments according to a new service evaluation from the University of East Anglia.

Broadband plays a critical role in most aspects of modern-day life, yet over 42 million Americans still lack access to high-speed Internet. This digital divide is driven by "digital redlining"—discriminatory disinvestment in broadband infrastructure that disproportionately affects people of color, low-income communities, and rural populations, worsening disparities in access to health care, social

The NHS needs an immediate cash injection of around £8.5bn a year over the next four years to make up a £32bn shortfall in funding and help tackle the current crisis, especially in areas such as waiting times, access to primary care, workforce and capital investment, say experts in the second report of The BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS.

Pharmacy dispensing patterns for sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP1-RA) medications show lower prescribing for minority patients; and the rate of SGLT2i prescriptions is low among patients with indications for therapy, according to two studies presented at the American Heart Association Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Card

Sarah Feldman, 35, received the first ominous letters from Mount Sinai Medical last November. The New York hospital system warned it was having trouble negotiating a pricing agreement with UnitedHealthcare, which includes Oxford Health Plans, Feldman's insurer.

A new policy analysis led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute describes the intensive care crisis in rural America and provides a comprehensive policy solution to bolster intensive care capacity.

The Social Security Administration's new chief is promising to overhaul the agency's system of clawing back billions of dollars it claims was wrongly sent to beneficiaries, saying it "just doesn't seem right or fair."

A recent Mayo Clinic study published in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine investigated how telehealth in palliative care may provide value for rural caregivers, health care teams and their patients. Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness.

Top U.S. officials in the Washington area have received preferential treatment from a little-known health care program run by the military, potentially jeopardizing care for other patients including active-duty service members, according to Pentagon investigators.

Christine Meyer, an independent physician in Exton, Pennsylvania, is always looking for ways to provide better care for the patients who come to her primary care practice each year.

In a little more than two years as CEO of a small hospital in Wyoming, Dave Ryerse has witnessed firsthand the worsening financial problems eroding rural hospitals nationwide.

The use of mobile clinics to deliver COVID-19 vaccines can significantly increase vaccination uptake. Research by Wageningen University & Research, conducted in rural communities in Sierra Leone and published today in Nature, shows that addressing "last mile" problems such as accessibility has a positive effect on vaccination rates.

You've seen the headlines before: Idaho has a shortage of physicians. But just how short are we?

A new analysis led by researchers at the University of Oxford has found that virtually all care homes forced to close in England by the Care Quality Commission are run on a for-profit basis. The results, published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, raise questions about the role of the private sector in exacerbating the care sector's ongoing crisis.

Since most women will continue working for years after entering menopause, the effect of menopause symptoms on their working ability is an important issue and the focus of a new study. Among other things, the study suggested that premature menopause can limit a woman's work ability and time spent in the workforce. Results of the survey are published in Menopause.

Community health workers are the frontline members of the U.S. public health workforce. They're also among the most diverse part of that workforce—about 40% are non-white, and that number is increasing.