Price increases are the biggest driver of rising emergency room visit costs across the U.S., according to research led by the Center for Health and Biosciences' Vivian Ho and Sasathorn Tapaneeyakul.
Observations that peritoneal dialysis (PD) may be an effective, lower-cost alternative to hemodialysis for the treatment of ESKD have led to policies encouraging PD and subsequent increases in its use in the United States.
A study of U.S. hospitals acquired by private equity firms found improved financial performance — and that patient throughput (or the process of admitting, treating and discharging patients) increased while staffing decreased.
Analyzing insurance claims for BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, the authors found that level I and II trauma center expansion was not associated with increased prices or use of trauma activation fees in the state of Texas. Read the article in JAMA.
Private equity investment in hospitals has grown substantially in the 21st century, and it accelerated in the years leading up the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study of short-term acute care hospitals acquired by private equity firms, the authors find they not only have higher markups and profit margins, they’re also slower to expand their staffs.
It now seems technically feasible to culture human embryos beyond the “fourteen‐day limit,” which has the potential to increase scientific understanding of human development and perhaps improve infertility treatments. Robust stakeholder engagement preceded adoption of the fourteen‐day limit and should arguably be part of efforts to reassess it, write the authors.
Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ana S. Iltis, Daniel S. Wagner, Nuria Gallego Marquez, Jason Scott Robert, Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Marieke Bigg, Sarah Franklin, Soren Holm, Ingrid Metzler, Matteo A. Molè, Jochen Taupitz, Giuseppe Testa, Jeremy SugarmanFebruary 26, 2021
The authors found that six months of pre–end-stage kidney disease nephrology care did not significantly improve the likelihood that patients would remain employed when they started dialysis. This finding underscores the need to identify effective methods to help patients stay employed when they transition to dialysis.