findings

"We found the system did reasonably well in sorting the good claims from the bad ones, but there were problems," says Harvard's David Studdert. But not everybody sees it that way. Studdert's team published a study that appears in the New England Journal of Medicine this week that finds that 40 percent of medical malpractice claims are groundless. The Harvard researcher argues that most are thrown out, a sign perhaps that the system works well enough already. The American Medical …

A federal probe found that operators on Medicare Part D hotlines often get it wrong--providing accurate information to callers only 40 percent of the time in some instances. GAO investigators called the Medicare hotline 500 times in late January and early February. The review was requested by congressional Democrats, who are pointing at the report as evidence that the benefit's startup phase was mishandled. CMS administrator Mark McClellan disputed the findings, noting that the test took …

Hospital-acquired infections may be a far more serious problem than had been initially thought, according to a report released this week by a Pennsylvania research group. The study looks at data collected from Pennsylvania hospitals since 2004, when a new reporting law went into effect that requires hospitals to report four common types of infection. Researchers found that patients who developed infections cost the health system on average seven times as much as other patients. The report …

A new study by cardiologists at Duke has found evidence that appears to back the effectiveness of wireless systems that transmit electrocardiogram data from ambulances on their way to hospitals. Doctors were able to access data on heart attacks on their PDAs, giving them more time to evaluate cases before they arrived in the emergency department. That difference, the researchers argue, is critical.

Lead researcher George Adams comments, "When the cardiologist can directly see an …

A new study finds that Medicare Part D restricts the choice of drugs available to participants in some cases. The research, which looks at California plans, finds that the they offer participants a generally narrower selection of medications than they would be eligible for under Medi-Cal, the state program for low-income residents. The study was conducted by Washington-based Avalere Health for the California Health Care Foundation.

In a press conference yesterday, CMS administrator …

The Institute of Medicine released a much-anticipated report on Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), arguing that the responsibility for investigating patient complaints should be given to somebody else. The report echoes earlier findings that had argued QIOs may not be looking into problems as rigorously as necessary because of financial links to doctors and hospitals. The Institute argues that QIOs should refine their focus to concentrate solely on providing technical …

Oncologists are among the minority of physicians who make money by prescribing and dispensing drugs when they administer chemotherapy in their offices. There have long been accusations that this influences their practice patterns so that they maximize their incomes. Now an article in Health Affairs shows that, for the period 1995-8, while reimbursement levels apparently didn't impact the choice of whether to use chemotherapy or not, it did mean greater use of more expensive …

The Womens Health Initiative was a massive study started in 1991 that enrolled over 161,000 women to study low-fat diets, hormone replacement therapy and other health issues. Several of the findings, such as those suggesting that hormone therapy had adverse side effects and that low-fat diets don't do much to reduce heart disease and cancer, are now being challenged. The Wall Street Journal has an in-depth article looking at the initiative. It suggests that some of the …

It's well known that VA hospitals have improved care quality in recent years. However, what may be more surprising is that its patients and consumers appear to be much happier than those in the private sector, according to a report in The Washington Post. The American Customer Satisfaction Index, conducted by the University of Michigan Business School, ranks organizations on a scale of one to 100. Virginia received an 83 for in-patient care and an 80 for out-patient …

Despite regulations requiring hospitals to reveal prices and available charity care programs that provide discounted care, few hospitals do so. A study by the California Healthcare Foundation used mystery shoppers posing as uninsured patients to test hospitals on how well they live up to their obligations to provide information to customers who ask for it. Researchers were able to eventually get details on prices, although with some difficulty. Information about charity care programs was …