Counties in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) had fewer deaths annually from heart disease compared to areas that did not expand Medicaid, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2019. Medicaid expansion under the ACA, which began in… Continue reading Affordable Health Care Coverage and Heart Disease
Tag: Affordable Care Act
A Public Policy and Increased Patient Deaths
A policy that was supposed to reduce hospital readmissions via financial penalties was linked to a significant increase in post-discharge death for patients who had heart failure and pneumonia, according to a large-scale study. The investigation was conducted by researchers in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s (BIDMC) Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology. It… Continue reading A Public Policy and Increased Patient Deaths
Health Care: Starting A Conversation Between Millennials and Baby Boomers
“When I was your age” is a phrase that Millennials say they’ve grown tired of hearing from Boomers on almost every subject, including how our health care system has changed over the years. Millennials didn’t live the before and after of many health care measures, so they may think it’s no big deal that we… Continue reading Health Care: Starting A Conversation Between Millennials and Baby Boomers
Affordable Care Act Payment Reform Achieves Early Gains
Accountable care organizations that joined the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) when it launched in 2012 achieved modest savings while maintaining or improving performance on measures of quality of patient care in 2013, the first full year of the program, researchers at Harvard Medical School found in the first rigorous examination of this key health… Continue reading Affordable Care Act Payment Reform Achieves Early Gains
Some Insured Patients Lack Access to Specialists
Although 12 million Americans have insurance under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance marketplace, some of them may not have enough access to specialists, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study shows that nearly 15 percent of the plans lacked in-network physicians for at least one specialty.… Continue reading Some Insured Patients Lack Access to Specialists
Better Assessment Needed Before Diagnoses
An examination of process measures endorsed by the National Quality Forum finds that these measures focus predominantly on management of patients with established diagnoses, and that quality measures for patients presenting symptoms often do not reflect the most common reasons patients seek care, according to a study published in the February 3rd 2015 issue of… Continue reading Better Assessment Needed Before Diagnoses