All articles tagged: Medical economics

Every fall, millions of Medicare beneficiaries have the chance to pick a new stand-alone prescription drug plan that may be better suited for them, but most stick with the same plan.

Where would you like to be when you die? Seven out of eight people in Canada would choose to pass away at home where they and their loved ones would be more comfortable.

Hospices are increasingly owned by private equity firms and publicly traded companies, but recently Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that they performed substantially worse than hospices owned by not-for-profit agencies. This is concerning, as nearly 75% of hospice programs, which care for patients in their last stage of life, are for-profit.

After Hurricane Helene sent its storm surge into Florida's west coast in late September, local emergency responders and health care workers pulled long hours on the job. Then came Hurricane Milton right behind it, with Category 3 winds and rains wreaking havoc not just to property, but the patience and nerves of those same exhausted crews.

Many of England's pharmacy technicians are forced to endure low pay, poor job satisfaction, bullying, lack of support and stressful work environments, a study by University of Manchester researchers has shown.

Burnout is a public health crisis that affects the well-being of physicians and other health care workers, and the populations they serve. Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, lack of motivation, and feelings of ineffectiveness and inadequate achievement at work. Past studies have shown that compared to the general working U.S. population, physicians are at increased risk fo

California this year took the final step in opening Medi-Cal, its Medicaid program, to every eligible resident regardless of immigration status. It's a significant expansion for an already massive safety net program.

On a warm autumn morning, Roger Brown walked through a grove of towering trees whose sap fuels his maple syrup business. He was checking for damage after recent flooding. But these days, his workers' health worries him more than his trees."

To discover how millions in opioid settlement funds are being spent in Idaho, you can visit the state attorney general's website, which hosts 91 documents from state and local entities getting the money.

Two measures of patient well-being, designed for use in busy clinical settings, are described in a Perspective piece in a supplement to Medical Care.

It's no longer a new trend: large retail pharmacies have been shuttering hundreds of stores across the nation. But an interactive map by University of Pittsburgh pharmacy researchers may help the public visualize the volume of those closures over the past 10 years—and glean the impact the closures may be having on the health of communities.

Despite making up nearly 90% of the workforce in the health care industry, female nurses were still faced with a pay gap of between 4% to 13% when compared with their male counterparts.

Before 2024 ends, Congress will decide whether to keep or change rules about telehealth, or let them expire. And even though the decision will focus on Medicare's payment for virtual patient care, it will likely impact telehealth access for people with other kinds of health insurance too.

This spring, a few days after his 2nd birthday, Brigland Pfeffer was playing with his siblings in their San Diego backyard.

Inside the more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country, not a single nun can be found occupying a chief executive suite, according to the Catholic Health Association.

The NHS mental health workforce decreased significantly during austerity, with notable disparity in staffing levels across the country, according to a new review.

Nurse burnout is associated with lower health care quality, worse patient safety, and lower patient satisfaction, according to a review published online Nov. 5 in JAMA Network Open.

Institutional leaders consider policies about late-career physicians (LCPs; physicians working beyond age 65 to 75 years) to be successful, according to a study published online Nov. 5 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Inspectorates involved in the assessment and regulation of health care, education and other public services should be themselves assessed to instill public confidence, leading health researchers suggest.

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans receive billions of federal dollars for enrolling veterans who receive no Medicare services, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may one day play a larger role in medicine than the online symptom checkers available today. But these "AI doctors" may need to get more personal than human doctors to increase patient satisfaction, according to a study led by researchers at Penn State. They found that the more social information an AI doctor recalls about patients, the higher the patients' satisfactio

Black patients are less likely than white patients to receive medical tests that doctors use to diagnose severe disease such as sepsis, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown.

America's homeless services system relies on a massive amount of data, and at first glance, that data is exacting. Federal reports describe the country's unhoused population in granular detail, listing precisely how many people are experiencing homelessness in each city, along with detailed demographic data. Want to know how many people ages 55-64 slept outside in Spokane last year? A spreadsheet

When Lyft driver Tramaine Carr transports seniors and sick patients to hospitals in Atlanta, she feels like both a friend and a social worker.

California's mental health commission on Thursday announced its executive director would resign amid revelations that he traveled to the U.K. courtesy of a state vendor while he sought to prevent a budget cut that would have defunded the company's contract.

Libby and Andrew Potter usually ignore the avalanche of Medicare Advantage ads that land in the mailbox at their home in Huntsville, Alabama, each fall as Medicare's open enrollment period begins.

Montana is looking to fast-track Medicaid access for older adults who need help to stay in their homes or towns.

The director of California's mental health commission traveled to London this summer courtesy of a state vendor while he was helping to prevent a $360 million budget cut that would have defunded the company's contract.

Clinics that offer exosome therapies claim they have the ability to repair and regenerate tissues and treat inflammatory and other immune-related conditions in a noninvasive way. Now, a team of bioethicists and legal scholars from Japan is sounding the alarm on the urgent need for stronger regulations surrounding these unproven interventions.

Pharmaceutical companies have paid an estimated £156 million to NHS trusts in England between 2015 and 2022 without the public being told what the payments are for, reveals an investigation by The BMJ today.

Experts have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to more accurately anticipate which patients will require emergency hospital admissions across Scotland.

Physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician associates (PAs) enhance different aspects of patient care quality, a new Yale and Fair Haven Community Health Care study finds.

Penn Presbyterian Medical Center has metal detectors installed at hospital entrances and equipped frontline staffers with wearable buttons to immediately call security officers when they're in danger.

Finding sound strategies to meet the growing demand for primary care, especially in underserved areas, is an ongoing public health challenge among policymakers. A new study led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute suggests that policy interventions aimed at recruiting physicians to specialize in primary care, especially to practice in underserved areas, should be tailored to the citizenshi

The authors of a new article in Journal of Palliative Medicine state that the "growing role of the financial sector in home health and hospice, a reflection of larger trends in U.S. health care, is concerning and has major implications for care quality unless reforms are undertaken."

While people are growing more accustomed to AI-driven personal assistants, customer service chatbots and even financial advisors, when it comes to health care, most still want it with a human touch.

While hot-button health care issues such as abortion and the Affordable Care Act roil the presidential race, Democrats and Republicans in statehouses around the country have been quietly working together to tackle the nation's medical debt crisis.

The policy of billing for secure messages changes patient expectations and can impact the patient-physician relationship, according to a research letter published online Oct. 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

In an age when antibiotic resistance poses a severe threat to global health, a new study sheds light on the often-overlooked hurdles of drug commercialization.

Accelerated three-year M.D. (3YMD) graduates have similar performance in medical school and early residency as four-year M.D. (4YMD) graduates, according to a study published online Oct. 15 in Academic Medicine.

Most employers have little idea what the pharmacy benefit managers they hire do with the money they exchange for the medications used by their employees, according to a KFF survey.

About 6.5 million "Near Dual" seniors are struggling to afford long-term care as they grow older and more frail, a new study warns.

More than half of U.S. physician peer reviewers for the most influential medical journals receive industry payments, according to a research letter published online Oct. 10 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Medicaid and health systems are playing a growing role in providing housing and other services to people experiencing homelessness, investments that could bolster—or eventually overtake—existing governance structures, new Cornell research finds.

Despite continuing overall inequities, the number of female residents matriculating to high-paying medical specialties has increased, with a notable rise in women entering high compensation surgical fields.

When it comes to drug pricing, the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations both have some very modest wins to tout.

Budgetary decisions by commissioners across England are affecting GPs' ability to offer their patients what most people regard as essential services and forcing some practices to close, an investigation by The BMJhas found.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a pressing issue: The U.S. health care system is increasingly dependent on immigrant physicians, but it's becoming harder for aspiring ones to work and settle in the U.S.

Large hospital systems control eight out of 10 hospital beds in the United States—and they continue to grow—but little has been known until now about how system ownership affects hospital operations.

Like most medical offices, the small suite of exam rooms at the PhiferCares Clinic fills daily with patients seeking help with bumps and bruises, sore throats, and stuffy noses.

Rural hospitals and hospitals that treat patients regardless of their ability to pay have been hampered by federal rules limiting their access to funding for capital projects—making it harder for them to generate revenue and achieve financial stability, according to a new policy paper.

Caring for someone with disability is a complex and demanding task. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show this role is increasingly being undertaken by people who have disability themselves. There were 1.2 million primary caregivers in Australia in 2022, and of these, 43.8% have disability (up from 32.1% in 2018).

Ballad Health, an Appalachian company with the nation's largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly, may soon be required to improve its quality of care or face the possibility of being broken up.

Latino and Black family medicine doctors are significantly more likely to participate in the Medicaid program and care for higher numbers of Medicaid patients compared to their white and Asian peers. So says a study by researchers at George Washington University.

As African countries struggle with overburdened health care systems, limited resources, and an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, digital health innovations are essential.

Earlier this month, the government announced major changes to aged care in Australia, including a A$4.3 billion investment in home care.

A new study shows that less than 2% of total government health spending in Australia goes towards public health efforts like infectious and chronic disease protection, prevention and health promotion. The research also uncovered a lack of transparency in exactly how much and where public health money is spent.

Even though preventive care is supposed to be free by law for millions of Americans thanks to the Affordable Care Act, many don't receive recommended preventive services, especially racial and ethnic minorities and other at-risk patient groups.

Australia is facing a surge in hospital presentations in older adults. Between 2015–16 and 2019–20, hospitalizations among people aged 75–84 increased by an average of 3% annually, the largest rise of any age group.

First-of-its-kind research by Tarang Parekh, assistant professor of epidemiology, reviewed the State Innovation Models (SIM), a payment system introduced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2013, which provides financial incentives to states to develop innovative payment models to improve health care systems.

A first-of-its kind analysis of data collected from England's annual health survey found that of the people who reported their health as "poor," those living in areas of high deprivation are likely to have worse health than those living in the least deprived areas. The research has been published in BMJ Public Health.

Health care is a defining issue in the 2024 election—Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican contender Donald Trump have starkly different records on the issue. Rather than focusing on what they promise to do, let's examine what their past actions reveal about their approaches to Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, public health infrastructure, drug policy and child abuse and d

The number of patients per GP has soared by 9%, rising to a massive 32% when taking chronic conditions into account, a new study in England by University of Manchester researchers has found.

Millions of eligible adults may not be signing up for medical and nutrition support programs because they live in areas where friends and neighbors are detained due to their immigration status.

Frailty in older Australians is imposing a staggering burden on Australia's health care system and is driving up costs in community aged-care, new research by Flinders University has revealed.

For nearly a decade, John Baackes has led L.A. Care Health Plan, a publicly run insurer primarily serving low-income Los Angeles County residents on Medi-Cal. It is by far the largest Medi-Cal plan in the state.

Mercedes Dodge was raised by first-generation immigrant parents from Peru in a modest home in a rural part of southeastern Texas, where there weren't many health care providers. Sometimes they had to travel to Houston, over an hour and a half away, to get basic health care.

Suspicions that U.S. consumers' personal information could be accessed from India led regulators to abruptly bar two large private sector enrollment websites from accessing the Affordable Care Act marketplace in August.

The proportion of Americans without health insurance remained stable in 2023, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, close to the record low the Biden administration achieved in 2022 through expansions of public programs, including the Affordable Care Act.

In Canada, prescribing potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs)—drugs whose harms may outweigh their benefits, which may be ineffective, or for which a safer alternative exists—remains very common among the elderly. Moreover, although overall spending on PIMs decreased between 2013 and 2021, seniors' exposure to three categories of PIMs increased during this period: gabapentinoids, proton pump

Beginning Jan. 1, Americans with private health insurance coverage should gain better access to mental health care, as well as care to help ease substance abuse, federal officials announced Monday.

The computer systems run by the consulting giant Deloitte that millions of Americans rely on for Medicaid and other government benefits are prone to errors that can take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to update. While states wait for fixes from Deloitte, beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food.

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.