You won't believe this. A team of researchers, led by Sanket Dhruva (UCSF) have found...sit down for this...

An association b/w $$ received and Impella's implanted. In JAMA

There's even a dose-response curve. Of course.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

Full text of my article Forbes: CMS Invites Hospitals To Raise Prices And Buy Physician Practices

Mounting hospital bills, crushing medical debt, ballooning insurance premiums… While we are wrestling with these widespread healthcare affordability problems, it’s helpful to…

#DYK ? MA Health Policy Commission found commercial prices for common surgeries are up to 55% lower in ambulatory surgical centers than in higher-cost settings, hospital outpatient departments, resulting in lower patient cost-sharing. Learn more: mass.gov/info-details/h…

So, did the ACA bend the cost curve? Call it coincidence, but excess cost growth — health spending growing faster than GDP — basically ended when it was passed

Just one of the many many things we subject people to in health care with no evidence that it makes a whit of difference. statnews.com/2024/03/19/col…

Here is why diagnosis-based risk adjustment is fundamentally broken if used as a basis for payment. It's far too easy to play this game. kffhealthnews.org/news/article/w…

See the latest in our DataPoints series on ambulatory surgery centers in Massachusetts! mass.gov/info-details/h…

We found the nursing workforce recovered in 2022 and 2023, but not in hospitals...JAMA Health Forum jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-…

2 newspapers
2 public health measures
2 prominent public health experts
1 theme

If the public isn’t willing to do something, public health should make sure it’s an evidence based and worthwhile recommendation.

The consequence if it’s not: erosion of trust.

Good opinion piece in the NYT. nytimes.com/2024/01/18/opi…

Wow.

Many thanks to Dave Muoio FierceHealthcare for covering our study: fiercehealthcare.com/providers/hosp…; link to study
JAMA Health Forum: jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-…
Michael Chernew

Medical non-econ folks: watch this amazing Nobel lecture on the evolution of female labor participation. This remarkable synthesis is also the story of women in medicine. m.youtube.com/live/RBkLI5i-O…

Watch the new HPC Short: Excessive Pricing in the Massachusetts Health Care System. youtube.com/watch?v=bTyMtg…

A new report published Tuesday found over one in five coronary stents placed between 2019 and 2021 were unnecessary, costing Medicare $800 million a year and putting patients at risk of complications like stroke, heart attack and death.

buff.ly/40kKpPk

“These companies are preferring, frankly, to find ways to take costs out of their own cost structure, including reducing headcount, and not really take much value away from their offerings as it relates to consumers.” I.e. don't believe the talking points. modernhealthcare.com/insurance/cent…

Massachusetts Medicare beneficiaries had 20% more inpatient stays than expected in 2021.

Accounting for population characteristics, this is the highest excess hospitalization rate nationally.

Read more from the HPC’s 2023 Cost Trends Report: mass.gov/doc/2023-healt…

At least $3 billion in health care spending annually in MA is due to excessive prices.

This translates on average to $3,000 per year for a family with private insurance – money that could be returned or reinvested.