Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Hospital Prices Increase in California, Especially Among Hospitals in the Largest Multi-hospital Systems
This article examines hospital prices in California over time with a focus on hospitals in the largest multi-hospital systems. Our data show that hospital prices in California grew substantially (+76% per hospital admission) across all hospitals and all services between 2004 and 2013 and that prices at hospitals that are members of the largest, multi-hospital systems grew substantially more (113%) than prices paid to all other California hospitals (70%). Prices were similar in both groups at the start of the period (approximately $9200 per admission). By the end of the period, prices at hospitals in the largest systems exc...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - June 8, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Melnick, G. A., Fonkych, K. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Lung Cancer Care Before and After Medicare Eligibility
Uninsured and underinsured near-elderly may not have timely investigation, diagnosis, or care of cancer. Prior studies suggest Medicare eligibility confers significant and substantial reductions in mortality and increases in health service utilization. We compared 2245 patients diagnosed with lung cancer at ages 64.5 to 65 years and 2512 patients aged 65 to 65.5 years, with 2492 patients aged 65.5 to 66 years (controls) in 2000 to 2005. Compared with controls, patients diagnosed with lung cancer before Medicare eligibility had no statistically significant differences in cancer stage, time to treatment, type of treatment, a...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - May 9, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Huesch, M. D., Ong, M. K. Tags: Article Source Type: research

Prostate Cancer Care Before and After Medicare Eligibility
Prior studies suggest Medicare eligibility confers significant and substantial reductions in mortality and beneficial increases in health service utilization. We compared 13 882 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer at ages 63 to 64 years with 14 774 patients diagnosed at ages 65 to 66 (controls) in 2004 to 2007. Compared with controls, patients diagnosed with prostate cancer before Medicare eligibility had no statistically significant or meaningful differences in cancer stage, time to treatment, or type of treatment. (Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing)
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - May 9, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Huesch, M. D., Ong, M. K. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Health Expenditure Concentration and Characteristics of High-Cost Enrollees in CHIP
Devising effective cost-containment strategies in public insurance programs requires understanding the distribution of health care spending and characteristics of high-cost enrollees. The aim was to characterize high-cost enrollees in a state’s public insurance program and determine whether expenditure inequality changes over time, or with changes in cost-sharing policies or program eligibility. We use 1999-2011 claims and enrollment data from the Alabama Children’s Health Insurance Program, ALL Kids. All children enrolled in ALL Kids were included in our study, including multiple years of enrollment (N = 1,031...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - May 9, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Sen, B., Blackburn, J., Aswani, M. S., Morrisey, M. A., Becker, D. J., Kilgore, M. L., Caldwell, C., Sellers, C., Menachemi, N. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Using Clinical Vignettes to Assess Quality of Care for Acute Respiratory Infections
Overprescribing of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) is common. Our objective was to develop and validate a vignette-based method to estimate clinician ARI antibiotic prescribing. We surveyed physicians (n = 78) and retail clinic clinicians (n = 109) between January and September 2013. We surveyed clinicians using a set of ARI vignettes and linked the responses to electronic health record data for all ARI visits managed by these clinicians during 2012. We then created a new measure of antibiotic prescribing, the comprehensive ARI management rate. This was defined as not prescribing antibiotics for antibio...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - April 19, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Gidengil, C. A., Linder, J. A., Beach, S., Setodji, C. M., Hunter, G., Mehrotra, A. Tags: Article Source Type: research

Estimating the Counterfactual: How Many Uninsured Adults Would There Be Today Without the ACA?
Time lags in receiving data from long-standing, large federal surveys complicate real-time estimation of the coverage effects of full Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. Fast-turnaround household surveys fill some of the void in data on recent changes to insurance coverage, but they lack the historical data that allow analysts to account for trends that predate the ACA, economic fluctuations, and earlier public program expansions when predicting how many people would be uninsured without comprehensive health care reform. Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 2000 to 2012 and the Health Reform Monit...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - April 12, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Blumberg, L. J., Garrett, B., Holahan, J. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Agreement Between HEDIS Performance Assessments in the VA and Medicare Advantage: Is Quality in the Eye of the Beholder?
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system assess quality of care using standardized Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) performance measures. Little is known, however, about the relative accuracy of quality indicators for persons receiving care in more than one health care system. Among Veterans dually enrolled in an MA plan, we examined the agreement between MA and VA HEDIS assessments. Our study tested the hypothesis that private health plans underreport quality of care relative to a fully integrated delivery system utilizing a comprehensive electronic health rec...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - March 30, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Trivedi, A. N., Wilson, I. B., Charlton, M. E., Kizer, K. W. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

The Impact of Information on Doctors Attitudes Toward Generic Drugs
The objective of this study is to assess the impact of information on doctors’ attitudes and perceptions toward generics. A cross-sectional survey based on a specially designed 21-item questionnaire was conducted. The survey involved doctors of different specialties working in a public hospital in Greece. The analysis includes descriptive and inferential statistics, reliability and validity tests, as well as structural equation modeling to evaluate the causal model. Statistical analysis was accomplished by using SPSS 20 and Amos 20. A total of 134 questionnaires out of 162 were received, providing a response rate of ...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - March 30, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Tsaprantzi, A. V., Kostagiolas, P., Platis, C., Aggelidis, V. P., Niakas, D. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Does Rapid and Sustained Economic Growth Lead to Convergence in Health Resources: The Case of China From 1980 to 2010
This study investigates whether health system resources and performance have converged over the past 30 years across China’s 31 provinces. To examine geographic variation of health system resources and performance at the provincial level, we measure the degree of sigma convergence and beta convergence in indicators of health system resources (structure), health services utilization (process), and outcome. All data are from officially published sources: the China Health Statistics Year Book and the China Statistics Year Book. Sigma convergence is found for resource indicators, whereas it is not observed for either pro...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - February 19, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Liang, D., Zhang, D., Huang, J., Schweitzer, S. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Why Is Bigger Not Always Better in Primary Health Care Practices? The Role of Mediating Organizational Factors
The objective of this article is to identify some of these organizational characteristics and to determine the extent to which they mediate the relationship between size of PHC practice and patients’ experience of care, preventive services, and unmet needs. In 2010, we conducted population and organization surveys in 2 regions of the province of Quebec. We carried out multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses, adjusting for respondents’ individual characteristics. Size of PHC practice was associated with organizational characteristics and resources, patients’ experience of care, unmet needs, and ...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - January 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Pineault, R., Provost, S., Borges Da Silva, R., Breton, M., Levesque, J.-F. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Organization and Finance of Chinas Health Sector: Historical Antecedents for Macroeconomic Structural Adjustment
This article provides a historical account of the development of health care in China since 1949. It also focuses on health insurance and macroeconomic structural adjustment to less saving and more consumption. In particular, the question of how health insurance impacts precautionary savings is considered. Multivariate analysis using data from 1990 to 2012 is employed. The household savings rate is the dependent variable in 3 models segmented for rural and urban populations. Independent variables include out-of-pocket health expenditures, health insurance payouts, housing expenditure, education expenditure, and consumption...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - January 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Li, H., Hilsenrath, P. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Residential High-Speed Internet Among Those Likely to Benefit From an Online Health Insurance Marketplace
Using data from the 2013 American Community Survey, we found that 24.3 million people (about 1 in 4) who were either eligible for Medicaid/Children’s Health Inusrance Program (CHIP) or appeared likely to shop for Qualified Health Plan (QHP) lacked residential high-speed Internet. Specifically, 28.6% or 18.9 million people eligible for Medicaid/CHIP and 17.1% or 5.5 million people who appeared likely to shop for a QHP did not have high-speed Internet in the home. For both the Medicaid/CHIP eligible and those likely to shop for a QHP, the proportion of people living in households without Internet varied substantially b...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - January 18, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Boudreaux, M. H., Gonzales, G., Blewett, L., Fried, B., Karaca-Mandic, P. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Explaining the Growth in US Health Care Spending Using State-Level Variation in Income, Insurance, and Provider Market Dynamics
The slowed growth in national health care spending over the past decade has led analysts to question the extent to which this recent slowdown can be explained by predictable factors such as the Great Recession or must be driven by some unpredictable structural change in the health care sector. To help address this question, we first estimate a regression model for state personal health care spending for 1991-2009, with an emphasis on the explanatory power of income, insurance, and provider market characteristics. We then use the results from this simple predictive model to produce state-level projections of health care spe...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - December 9, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Herring, B., Trish, E. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Electronic Health Object: Transforming Health Care Systems From Static to Interactive and Extensible
This article proposes a novel framework in addressing the emerging need for interactivity while preserving and extending existing electronic medical data. The framework has 3 dimensions of patient health record: personal, social, and medical dimensions. The framework is designed to empower patients, changing their roles from static recipient of health care services to dynamic and active partners in health care processes. (Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing)
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - December 8, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Almunawar, M. N., Anshari, M., Younis, M. Z., Kisa, A. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research

Exploring the Life Expectancy Increase in Poland in the Context of CVD Mortality Fall: The Risk Assessment Bottom-Up Approach, From Health Outcome to Policies
This article focuses on the reasons of the significant life expectancy prolongation in Poland over the past 2 decades, thus includes policy context. The methodology details a bottom-up risk assessment approach, a chain of relations between the health outcome, risk factors, and health policy, based on Risk Assessment From Policy to Impact Dimension project guidance. A decline in cardiovascular disease mortality was a key factor that followed life expectancy prolongation. Among basic factors, tobacco and alcohol consumption, diet, physical activity, and new treatment technologies were identified. Poor health outcomes of the ...
Source: Inquiry: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing - November 5, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Kobza, J., Geremek, M. Tags: Original Research Source Type: research