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Insurance Expansion can Improve Compliance

by Guest Authors in Access to Care

Out-of-pocket healthcare spending has always been an issue for Americans, especially for those with chronic health problems who have an increased need for prescription drugs. [...]

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OP/Notes

  • Low Cost Doctors Save Patients $26 per Visit
    In the increasingly competitive market that defines the nation’s health care system, a recent study examined how price transparency for the cost of outpatient physician office visits could potentially lower rising health care costs. The study found significant price variation between primary care physicians based on the price of a middle-complexity established outpatient office visit. A 10% difference in pricing, or roughly $26, was noted between the low- and high-priced primary care [...]

  • No Difference Between Public & Private Coverage
    A new study confirms what many think, that some insurance coverage is better than none. What may challenge some people’s preconceptions is that whether that insurance coverage is private or public (i.e. Medicare or Medicaid) access to care is fairly similar. Chris Yarzab (Flickr/CC) Researchers assessed the healthcare landscape in Texas, Arkansas, and Kentucky – three states with dramatically different approaches to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They explored issues of access to care [...]

  • Poor Lives Matter
    A recent paper describes the impact of poverty on various health outcomes and social conditions using an elegant, easy-to understand method. The authors used the 2015 County Health Rankings National Data to determine the five-year averages for median household income for each of the 3,141 US counties. Desiring to look at the poorest counties in the nation, regardless of where they were geographically located, the authors rearranged the counties sorted by increasing income into 50 new [...]

  • A Punch to the Gut for Young Americans
    Appendicitis is not pleasant. Commonly described as a dull mid-abdominal ache that sharpens as it moves toward the right lower quadrant, it is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Worse than appendicitis, however, are the possible complications of a ruptured appendix: peritonitis, abscess, and septicemia. Source: Nicolás Celaya What keeps an inflamed appendix from perforating? Timely medical intervention. Lack of access is a known reason patients with appendicitis fail to access care in [...]

  • Narrow Networks Keep Costs Low
    The number of insurance plans with narrow networks has increased after the implementation of health insurance exchanges (Marketplaces) of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Narrow networks may reduce costs by: (1) restricting high cost providers, (2) allowing negotiation of discounted reimbursement rates in exchange for increased volume, and (3) excluding providers with high cost patients to promote favorable risk pools. The authors of this article characterize and quantify the association between [...]

  • Access to Specialists Worse with Medicaid
    Increase outpatient services and thereby decrease expensive emergency department visits, or so the popular axiom goes. This only works, however, if there are enough outpatient visits to be had. This study by Medford-Davis et al. examines the availability of outpatient orthopedic ankle appointments by insurance status. Privately insured patients had an 85% chance of success in securing appointments. Interestingly, the uninsured had the same odds as the privately insured in getting an [...]

  • How the ACA Impacted Emergency Room Visits
    Prior studies have demonstrated that when previously uninsured patients gain insurance, specifically Medicaid, they visit the emergency department (ED) more frequently. A recent study in Health Affairs analyzed the effect of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance expansion on overall ED volume and payer mix by comparing Medicaid expansion to non-expansion states. The Simpsons ® 20TH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP. The authors used an adjusted difference-in-differences approach to compare billing [...]

  • Come and Take It
    The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the future of health care in America sits in the crosshairs of Donald Trump and the Republican party. Even in Texas – a state in the heart of conservative America that chose not to expand Medicaid, the ACA still led to a 6% increase in insurance rates. But three million individuals living in Texas are still uninsured, a quarter of whom could be covered through expansion of Medicaid under the ACA. Studies have shown the ACA to be successful in expanding [...]

  • Americans Struggle with Costs and Access
    Since 1998, the Commonwealth Fund has surveyed several health care metrics in eleven countries across North America, Europe, and Australia. Recent surveys have shown the United States lagging in indicators relating to access and perceptions of costs. Understanding the measures in which the United States either lags or leads the international community provides guidance as reformers look for alternatives to the patchwork of public and private resources that comprise the U.S. health care system. [...]

  • What Works? Three Laws that Prevent Gun Deaths
    A number of laws have been passed at the state level to address firearm safety. Some laws loosen restrictions on gun ownership while others tighten restrictions on gun ownership. Not all firearm-related laws are effective. Researchers conducted a cross-sectional, state-level study examining 2008 – 2010 data from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and government databases to assess the effect of different gun laws on firearm mortality. Source: Flickr/CC The three laws most strongly [...]

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