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.
This study examines the impact of natural gas prices on the power systems of Mexico and the United States.
In Energy Policy, The International Journal of the Political, Economic, Planning, Environmental and Social Aspects of Energy.
Juan Rosellón, Luis Sarmiento, Anahi Molar-Cruz, Charalampos Avraam, Maxwell Brown, Sauleh Siddiqui, Baltazar Solano RodríguezJune 2, 2021
The results of this study suggest that Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty, which costs less to obtain than from a for-profit data source, can be used to reliably track the cost and quality effects of vertical integration between hospitals and physicians.
When physicians integrate with hospitals, the cost of health care rises even though there’s no evidence patients get better treatment, the authors write. Journal of General Internal Medicine: https://bit.ly/2lxd4RY
New research finds that health care consolidation and the integration of hospital and doctor services not only fail to improve quality but also reduce patient satisfaction.
Higher costs for complex cancer surgery may be an indicator for worse, rather than better, quality of care, according to new research by the Baker Institute and the University of Texas MDAnderson Cancer Center. The study suggests that lower patient costs achieved by high-volume surgeons can be explained by the lower occurrence of “processes of care”— many of which are taken to avoid or treat complications that can occur during surgery, such as placing arterial lines or providing epidural anesthesia.
Vivian Ho, Marah Short, Thomas AloiaApril 21, 2017
Previous studies of tobacco policies aimed at reducing hospitalizations may have overestimated the benefits of bans on public smoking and underestimated the benefits of cigarette taxes, according to new research by the Baker Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Yale University, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“Public-place smoking bans play a critical role in improving public health, and we are not arguing that smoking bans be lifted in restaurants, bars and workplaces,” said research co-author Vivian Ho, the chair in health economics at the Baker Institute and director of the institute’s Center for Health and Biosciences. “However, policy makers and public health workers must be realistic in understanding the benefits of alternative policy interventions like taxes and bans. We found that raising cigarette taxes can have an immediate beneficial effect in terms of reducing costly hospitalizations. As for smoking bans, while these may eventually lower hospitalizations, our research found no immediate benefit in terms of reduced hospitalizations.”
Health care providers add multiple processes to the care of complex cancer patients, believing they prevent and/or ameliorate complications. However, the relationship between these processes, complication remediation, and expenditures is unknown.
Marah Short, Vivian Ho, Thomas AloiaSeptember 22, 2015