Biomedical subjects

Amir Shmueli

Publications and source records attributed to Amir Shmueli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

It might be premature to reject the assumption of a power curve relationship between VAS and SG data: three comments on Stevens, McCabe and Brazier's 'Mapping between VAS and SG data; results from the UK HUI Index 2 valuation survey'.

In a recent paper in Health Economics, Stevens, McCabe and Brazier (Health Econ. 2006; 15: 527-533.) found that the cubic relationship between Visual Analog Scale (VAS) values and standard gamble (SG) utilities was superior to other functional forms in terms of explanatory power and predictive ability. Consequently, they question the reliance on the assumption of a power curve relationship, which was established, theoretically and empirically, in earlier works. This note argues that: (1) SMB's conclusions are incorrect. The estimated cubic function overfits the four data points, and is questionable with respect to the implied attitude toward relative risk. (2) The evaluation of the functional forms in terms of the individual predictions' mean absolute error is misleading and (3) correcting for heteroscedasticity improves the precision of the estimates and of the predictions.

Data Collection↗

PubMed2007

Development of a capitation scale for IDF career soldiers in Israel.

The Israeli National Health Insurance Law allocates a national healthcare budget to the sickness funds, which provide medical care to civilian population. Medical care for members of the IDF is financed through the budget of the Ministry of Defense and is not included in the national healthcare budget. Benefits provided to soldiers serving in the permanent forces are far more extensive than those provided to civilians. Because of no co-payments, poor management, and the cost-based budget, military healthcare costs in Israel are expected to exceed civilian healthcare costs, adjusting for age and sex. The present paper derives age- and sex-based capitation rates for military personnel, and compares military and civilian age-based expenditure and capitation rates. The study population comprised career soldiers and civilians aged 21-54 years. Expenses of career soldiers were calculated to provide information on the financial costs of medical services for each age group in 2003. Overall expenses for women were higher than for men in all age groups. As anticipated, the older the group, the higher the total expenditure for both men and women. In-patient care represented a higher percentage of the total costs for men (28.3%) than for women (22.1%). Emergency room care was higher for women in the 22-24 age group but comparable to that of men in higher age groups. Specialist visits represented a significantly higher percentage of the total costs for women than for men in the 22-24 and 25-34 age groups (by 6% and 15%, respectively). The difference decreased to 13% in the 35-44 age groups and, in the 45-54 age group, the difference for men was 14% higher than for women. Military costs were similar to civilian costs in the 22-24 age groups, higher in the following two groups, and lower in the 45-54 age group. Like in other organizations, military healthcare services might benefit from outsourcing. The inequality in medical services to soldiers and civilians, the over-use of the military healthcare system, and the decrease of standards and budgetary resources will compel the establishment of more creative means of providing these services through contracts and agreements, perhaps through the civilian sickness funds.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Health and religiosity among Israeli Jews.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this paper is to explore the connection between self-reported health and religiosity among Israeli Jews, using several self-reported health measures. METHODS: Data were collected by two health surveys covering 1999 individuals in 1993 and 2505 individuals in 2000, representing the population of Jewish Israelis aged 45-75 years residing in urban communities in those years. Self-reported health was measured by (i) reported chronic conditions, (ii) the SF-36 instrument, and (iii) a visual analogue scale of health-related quality of life. Religiosity was measured by a self-reported five-category scale. RESULTS: Controlling for a large array of socio-demographic characteristics, while no religiosity gradient was found in reported chronic morbidity, religious persons generally report worse health than secular persons on the other measures. The gap is larger in the SF-36's role-performance scales, and among women and Israelis from Asian-African origin. DISCUSSION: The mixed results are consistent with the ambiguity of the religiosity effect on health reported in recent surveys. However, trying to reconcile between longer life expectancy of religious persons found in earlier Israeli and other research and poorer reported health found above, the paper emphasizes the possible differences in the perception of 'normal' life and roles, and argues that the SF-36 health measures might suffer from a religiosity-related reporting heterogeneity, distorting their association with mortality in the population.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Satisfaction with Family Physicians and Specialists and the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Israel.

Higher utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is commonly explained by dissatisfaction or disappointment with conventional medical treatment. To explore, at two points in time in Israel, the associations between six domains of satisfaction (attitude, length of visits, availability, information sharing, perceived quality of care and overall) with conventional family physicians' and specialists' services and the likelihood of consulting CAM providers. This is a secondary analysis of interviews, which were conducted with 2000 persons in 1993 and 2500 persons in 2000, representing the Israeli Jewish urban population aged 45-75 in those years. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used in the investigation. In 1993, users of CAM were less satisfied than non-users with both family physicians' and specialists' care. Lower satisfaction with the attitude of, the amount of information sharing by and in general with family physicians, and with the length of visits and perceived quality of care of specialists were significantly associated with CAM use. In 2000, lower satisfaction with specialists' attitude, length of visits, availability and in general was significantly related to the use of CAM. Lower satisfaction with family physicians and specialists is significantly associated with consulting CAM providers. However, with CAM becoming a mainstream medical care specialty in its own, lower satisfaction with conventional medicine specialists becomes the most important factor.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Complementary and alternative medicine: Beyond users and nonusers.

BACKGROUND: Studies of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) commonly distinguish between "users" and "nonusers". OBJECTIVES: To examine the group of "users" of CAM practitioners' services, and to characterize its heterogeneity in relation to the conventional medicine system. DESIGN: The heterogeneity of CAM users was examined with respect to three variables: user-type-CAM only or both CAM and conventional therapies, provider-type-CAM provider is a medical doctor or not, and referral-type-by a physician or self-referral. METHODS: The data are drawn from two health surveys conducted among 4500 persons representing the Israeli Jewish urban population aged 45-75 in 1993 and in 2000. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses confirm the heterogeneity of CAM users, and indicate that the variation within "users" is often larger than the variation between "users" and "nonusers". CONCLUSIONS: For a better understanding of consumers' behavior with respect to CAM use, one must go beyond the classical classification of "users" versus "nonusers". The present analysis offers three additional dimensions-user-type, provider-type, and referral-type.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

The Visual Analog rating Scale of health-related quality of life: an examination of end-digit preferences.

BACKGROUND: The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) has been extensively used in the valuation of health-related quality of life (HRQL). The objective of this paper is to examine the measurement error (rounding) explanation for the higher prevalence of VAS scores ending with a zero, and to provide an alternative interpretation. METHODS: The analysis is based on more than 4,500 reported VAS valuations of own HRQL, included in two Israeli health surveys (1993 and 2000). Bivariate and logistic regression analyses are used. RESULTS: The results show that reporting VAS scores ending with a 0 (...-20, ..0,10,20.....) decreases and scores ending with a 5 (...-15,-5,5,15,25,...) and with any other integer (...-12, -11,...1,2,...,92,..99) increases as VAS scores depart from 50, particularly when increasing up to 100. This pattern remains after controlling for personal characteristics determining the level of VAS. DISCUSSION: Rounding true HRQL to the nearest 10's or 5's cannot explain the specific pattern found. It is suggested that this pattern corresponds to a S-shaped value function, where individuals tend to evaluate their HRQL as "gains" or "losses" relative to a reference point evaluated at 50. This particular reference score originates from being a traditional "passing threshold" and the scale's midpoint. Several implications of this interpretation to the measurement of HRQL are discussed.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

Assessing the in-hospital survival benefits of intensive care.

OBJECTIVES: For an efficient and fair allocation of medical resources, one must know which patients benefit more from medical care. The objective of this study is to assess the differential survival benefits of a general intensive care unit (ICU) by acute diagnoses and by Acute Physiological and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) scores. METHODS: The sample included all patients triaged for admission to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center ICU during a 7-month period (n = 381). The potential effect of ICU on in-hospital survival was estimated by a bivariate (admission-survival) probit model, using crowding in the unit as the identifying variable, controlling for observable patients characteristics: age, sex, acute diagnoses, and APACHE II score. Using the estimates, the differential predicted survival benefits of ICU were calculated for selected general acute diagnoses and for different APACHE II scores. RESULTS: Adjusting for age, sex, and general acute diagnoses, the average potential survival benefit of ICU is 17 percentage points (pts). The benefit of ICU for patients with central nervous system problems, with sepsis, or with respiratory failure are higher than average (23 pts). Adjusting for APACHE II scores as well increases the estimated average potential benefit to 21 pts. Over the range of APACHE II scores, the highest benefit (38 pts of potential benefit) is attained for patients with scores around 22. CONCLUSIONS: Survival benefits differ across diagnoses and APACHE II scores. Facing limited resources, admission policies should distinguish between survival probabilities (and survival maximization) and survival benefits (and maximization of ICU benefits). Actual referral and admission policies to the present ICU do not maximize the potential survival benefits of ICU resources.

APACHE↗

PubMed2005

[Towards the inclusion of health state in the Israeli risk-adjustment scheme using medical diagnoses--some intermediate results].

BACKGROUND: A proper risk-adjustment mechanism in the allocation of funds to the health funds is a key element in the efficiency and equity of the health system. Since 1995, the Israeli risk-adjustment is based only on age, while, in many similar systems, considerable effort has been made to include health state as a risk-adjuster. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to suggest a risk-adjusted capitation scheme based on inpatient diagnoses. METHODS: Using the DxCG software and the MOH's hospitalization database for the period 1994-1997, the authors built a preliminary model to predict inpatient costs at a given year, based on diagnoses, age and sex in previous-year hospitalizations. The second stage, in which total health care costs are predicted based on the same previous-year information, has not been realized because of lack of cooperation from the health funds. RESULTS: The use of the DxCG diagnoses model with the Israeli data is feasible. However, further research is needed to construct the best Israeli model. The prediction of inpatient cost according to the diagnoses model is superior to that obtained by the demographic model.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed2004

Population health and income inequality: new evidence from Israeli time-series analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The relationship between population health and inequality in income distribution has attracted much attention during the last two decades. The purpose of this paper is to examine that relationship using Israeli time-series data, and considering three types of income: economic, pre-tax, and disposable. METHODS: Israeli time series (1979-2000) on life expectancy of men and women at birth and at ages 5 and 65, as well as infant mortality, were related to Gini coefficients measuring inequality in economic, pre-tax (after transfers) and disposable (after taxes) incomes, controlling for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This design allows for the estimation of the effects on population health of changes in income inequalities over time as well as of contemporaneous reduction in inequality due to transfers and taxes. RESULTS: None of the three income inequality measures by itself had an effect over time on population health. However, larger contemporaneous reductions in inequality, mainly through the transfers system, were associated with better population health, in particular with lower infant mortality. CONCLUSIONS: A significant part of the temporal improvement in the health of the Israeli population has been due to the increasing effort to reduce inequality in economic income by increasing transfer payments. The results are generally inconsistent with the argument of adverse psychosocial effects of inequality on health, and are consistent with inequality being related to other harmful public goods affecting health and with Rodgers' argument.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Consumer mobility in social health insurance markets : a five-country comparison.

During the 1990s, the social health insurance schemes of Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Israel were significantly reformed by the introduction of freedom of choice (open enrolment) of health insurer. This was introduced alongside a system of risk adjustment to compensate health insurers for enrolees with predictable high medical expenses. Despite the similarity in the health insurance reforms in these countries, we find that both the rationale behind these reforms and their impact on consumer choice vary widely.In this article we seek to explain the observed variation in switching rates by cross-country comparison of the potential determinants of health insurer choice. We conclude that differences in choice setting, and in the net benefits of switching, offer a plausible explanation for the large differences in consumer mobility.Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our cross-country comparison. We argue that the optimal switching rate crucially depends on the goals of the reforms and the quality of the risk-adjustment system. In view of this, we conclude that switching rates are currently too low in the Netherlands, and an active government policy to encourage consumer mobility seems warranted. In Germany and Switzerland, high switching rates call for an improvement of the rather poor risk-adjustment systems. Given low switching rates in Israel and Belgium, improving risk adjustment is less urgent, but still required in the long run.

Belgium↗

PubMed2004

Use of complementary and alternative medicine in Israel: 2000 vs. 1993.

BACKGROUND: Complementary and alternative medical care has gained increasing popularity in western societies in recent years. OBJECTIVES: To provide a cross-sectional and temporal (2000 vs. 1993) analysis of the use of complementary and alternative medicine in Israel. METHODS: The subjects studied represented the Israeli Jewish urban population aged 45-75 years. Full sit-down interviews were conducted with 2,003 respondents in 1993 and 2,505 respondents in 2000. RESULTS: For 1993, 6% of the population reported on consultations with CAM providers during the previous year. For 2000, that proportion increased to 10%. Being a woman, having higher education, enjoying better economic status, being younger, living in a big city, and being dissatisfied with specialists' care were all positively related to the use of non-conventional medicine, particularly in 2000. In both years, more than 50% of the consultations were with acupuncturists and homeopaths. However, chiropractors have doubled their market shares, and lower back pain became the leading problem for which care was sought. The main reason for consulting CAM was a reluctance to use too many drugs or to undergo an invasive procedure. However, a significant proportion of the users continue to use conventional medicine concurrently. Seventy-five percent in 2000 and 60% in 1993 reported that the treatment helped. CONCLUSIONS: Between 1993 and 2000, CAM in Israel changed from an infant industry into a mainstream medical commodity, reflected in both prevalence and different patterns of consumption.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2003

Risk adjustment and risk sharing: the Israeli experience.

Israel, like several other countries, introduced a national risk adjusted capitation system during the 1990s. However, the Israeli move was drastic, implementing from the beginning a fully prospective risk adjustment scheme based on age, supplemented by a 100% five condition-specific risk sharing. That scheme, together with open enrollment (periodic switching options), was intended to transform an unregulated competitive health insurance market, characterized by adverse selection and preferred risk selection, into managed competition assuring quality of care, efficiency and fairness. This paper presents the Israeli experience during the first 6 years of the reformed system, focusing on issues related to the risk adjustment and risk sharing arrangements.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Risk adjustment and risk selection on the sickness fund insurance market in five European countries.

From the mid-1990s citizens in Belgium, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland have a guaranteed periodic choice among risk-bearing sickness funds, who are responsible for purchasing their care or providing them with medical care. The rationale of this arrangement is to stimulate the sickness funds to improve efficiency in health care production and to respond to consumers' preferences. To achieve solidarity, all five countries have implemented a system of risk-adjusted premium subsidies (or risk equalization across risk groups), along with strict regulation of the consumers' direct premium contribution to their sickness fund. In this article we present a conceptual framework for understanding risk adjustment and comparing the systems in the five countries. We conclude that in the case of imperfect risk adjustment-as is the case in all five countries in the year 2001-the sickness funds have financial incentives for risk selection, which may threaten solidarity, efficiency, quality of care and consumer satisfaction. We expect that without substantial improvements in the risk adjustment formulae, risk selection will increase in all five countries. The issue is particularly serious in Germany and Switzerland. We strongly recommend therefore that policy makers in the five countries give top priority to the improvement of the system of risk adjustment. That would enhance solidarity, cost-control, efficiency and client satisfaction in a system of competing, risk-bearing sickness funds.

Capitation Fee↗

PubMed2003

Israelis evaluate their health care system before and after the introduction of the national health insurance law.

This article reports on the evaluation of the Israeli health care system made by samples of Israeli Jewish urban citizens aged 45-74 at two points in time: 1993 and 2000. In 1993, 44% of the population thought that only minor changes were needed; 47% stated that fundamental changes were needed, and 9% thought that the system should be completely rebuilt. In 2000 the respective percentages were 37, 49 and 14%. In the 2 years of the survey, 40% thought the health sector should receive top national priority in government spending. The findings are analyzed with respect to the changes that occurred between 1993 and 2000-in particular, the introduction of the National Health Insurance Law (NHIL) in 1995 and subsequent related legislation. It is argued that while the NHIL has been an important social achievement, its micro-management details and subsequent legislation failed to keep up with the public expectations. Similar changes in public opinion of health systems occurred over the last decade in several other western nations, which reformed their systems. Policy makers should find ways to assure that reforms, which might be necessary for a more efficient allocation of resources from society's point of view, will also respond to the individuals' expectations.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Socio-economic and demographic variation in health and in its measures: the issue of reporting heterogeneity.

True health state is an unobservable concept. Researchers and practitioners now have access to a large variety of tools to measure the health state and health related quality of life by self-reports. Socio-demographic variation in these measures is usually interpreted as variation in health. However, building on several measures simultaneously (multiple indicators), true health might be better represented, so that socio-demographic variation in any indicator can be decomposed into variation in the estimated true health, and measure-specific variation, holding true health constant. The latter variation is referred to as "reporting heterogeneity". Using structural equations models, the paper provides an empirical assessment of reporting heterogeneity in three popular measures of health and health related quality of life: the number of chronic conditions (CHRON), the SF-36 instrument and the visual analogue rating scale. Considering a large array of socio-economic and demographic characteristics from an Israeli health survey, the results indicate the existence of age-related reporting heterogeneity in the CHRON; income-related heterogeneity in the rating scale measure; and age, sex, income, ethnic origin and religiosity-related reporting heterogeneity in the SF-36 tool, in particular in its mental component scale. The main implication of reporting heterogeneity on the common uses of self-reported health measures is the need to adjust the measures not only for the determinants of health but also for the determinants of reporting heterogeneity.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMed2003

Optimizing admissions to an intensive care unit.

This paper presents a model for optimizing admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU) where the objective is to maximize the expected incremental number of lives saved from operating the ICU. The probability distribution of the number of occupied ICU beds is modeled using queueing theory. Three different admissions policies are considered: first come first served (FCFS), first come firstserved for all referrals whose expected incremental survival benefits gained from ICU admission exceed some hurdle (FCFS-H), and first come first served for all referrals whose expected incremental survival benefits exceed a bed specific hurdle (BSH) that depends upon the number of occupied beds (FCFS-BSH). The model is applied to data describing patients referred to the ICU at Jerusalem's Hebrew University-Hadassah Hospital. After statistically estimating the distribution of expected incremental survival benefits among those referred to the ICU, we show that if only those referrals where ICU admission would improve the probability of survival by at least 19.4 percentage points were admitted, an additional 18 statistical lives would be saved annually compared to the FCFS policy, a relative life saving improvement of 17.9%. Implementing the more complex optimal bed specific hurdle policy would save an additional 1.4 statistical lives annually beyond what can be achieved with FCFS-H, a marginal improvement of only 1.2%.

Decision Support Techniques↗

PubMed2002

The effects of introducing prospective payments to general hospitals on length of stay, quality of care, and hospitals' income: the early experience of Israel.

A new reimbursement system for general hospitals in Israel was introduced in July 1990. The new system specified that for 15 selected procedures, hospitals would be paid by the insurers prospectively, rather than by the traditional per-diem arrangement. The rates were determined by the Ministry of Health. Henceforth, the number of selected procedures has increased and by now 40 procedures are included. In line with the ever-lasting interest in the effect of financial incentives on suppliers of medical care, the purpose of this paper is to examine the first-year effect of this change on the volume of activity, length of stay, quality of care, and hospitals' real income. We focused on five selected procedures (cholecystectomy, hysterectomy, hip replacement, operations on lens and heart surgeries) performed in the four largest Israeli medical centers (Sheba, Sorasky, Rambam, and Hadassah). The analysis includes more than 17,000 hospitalizations occurring during two years prior to the change (July 1988-June 1990) and the first year after its implementation (July 1990-June 1991). We, therefore, examined, the short-term effects, wherein changes in the hospitals' behavior are reflected mainly in the above-mentioned hospitalization characteristics. Further analysis will be required to examine the long-run implications of the change as well as its effect on the rest of the general inpatient sector in Israel.

Arthroplasty, Replacement, Hip↗

PubMed2002

Reporting heterogeneity in the measurement of health and health-related quality of life.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate heterogeneity (systematic and observable variation) in health or health-related quality-of-life reports across population groups, for a given level of 'true health'. DESIGN: The investigators undertook full sit-down face-to-face interviews with 1999 individuals representing Jewish Israelis aged 45 to 75 years who resided in urban Israeli communities in 1993. Three popular measures of health and health-related quality of life were used: a categorical subjective evaluation, the 36-item Short Form health survey and a visual analogue health-related quality-of-life rating scale. The empirical analysis of the various relationships was based on the use of multiple-indicator linear structural equation models with latent variables. The model was estimated by the 2-stage least squares (2SLS) method. RESULTS: In general, the results confirm the existence of substantial measure-specific heterogeneity in reporting (with differences associated with age, gender and education level) for all three measures. CONCLUSIONS: The existence of heterogeneity in reporting renders the results of quality-of-life investigations sensitive to the sample used, and considerably limits the ability to generalise from these results and make comparisons with other populations. Economic evaluations based on self-reports are thus sensitive not only to the measure used, but also to the sample used. The application of results to populations differing in their socioeconomic and demographic structures, even if similar in the distribution of 'true health', might be misleading.

Aged↗