health affairs news from FierceHealthcare

In theory, Medicare hoped to both improve care and save significant amounts of money on needless illnesses when it instituted a policy of not paying for six hospital-acquired conditions. In reality,... Read more...

With the recession putting pressure on workers to re-enter the field, the nursing shortage is easing up, according to a new study appearing in Health Affairs. The study found that almost a... Read more...

The time doctors and staff spend working with health plans adds up to $21 billion to $31 billion per year, according to a new study conducted by the Medical Group Management Association and several... Read more...

A study in the journal Health Affairs recently reported that about two-thirds of primary care physicians could not get outpatient mental-health services for their patients in 2004-05. Roughly 6,600... Read more...

Last week, Health Affairs ran an article calling for the creation of "Accountable Care Organizations" within Medicare. These organizations, which would include doctors and hospitals, would be able to... Read more...

Of late, health plans and employers have been rolling out pay-for-performance programs aggressively, on the assumption that such programs offer a helpful method for improving healthcare quality. In... Read more...

While some continue to encourage more use of CDHPs, a recent study suggests that they may have a significant downside. This is important data given that the number of large companies offering a CDHP... Read more...

Doctors who treat minorities tend to face a unique set of quality and financial challenges, according to a new study appearing in Health Affairs. The researchers, who used data from the 2004-05... Read more...

This isn't too surprising, but it's not something policymakers will like, either. A new study of referral patterns in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh metros suggests that physicians who are... Read more...

A new study published in Health Affairs suggests that some physicians may be dodging Stark regulations when billing for advanced imaging services. The study, which used data from an unnamed California insurer, found that 33 percent of providers who billed for MRIs, 22 percent of those billing for CT scans and 17 percent of those who billed for PET scans could be classed as self-referrals. These physicians are avoiding the appearance of conflict by leasing or …

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