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Biomedical subjects

V R Fuchs

Publications and source records attributed to V R Fuchs.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

The health sector's share of the gross national product.

Between 1947 and 1987 expenditures for health care in the United States grew 2.5 percent per annum faster than expenditures for other goods and services. The health sector's share of the gross national product rose from well under 5 percent in the late 1940s to more than 11 percent in the late 1980s. The expenditures gap has two components: health care prices rose 1.6 percent per annum more rapidly than other prices, while the quantity of health care grew 0.9 percent per annum faster than other quantities. Many factors, including wages, productivity, technology, and insurance contributed to these trends. No single explanation suffices, and no simple solution is apparent.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1986

Has cost containment gone too far?

Current cost-containment strategies will undoubtedly result in fewer health services for patients. The effects of reductions in services on health and social welfare depend upon the amount and distribution of services (relative to potential benefit) prior to cost containment, and on the size and selectivity of the reductions. Disagreement over whether cost containment has gone too far arises from disagreements about the criterion (health or social welfare), the prior distribution, and how selective the reductions will be. In the long run, selectivity will be the key to successful cost containment.

Cost Control↗
PubMed1984

Case mix, costs, and outcomes. Differences between faculty and community services in a university hospital.

To gain insight into the possible consequences of prospective payment for university hospitals, we studied 2025 admissions to the faculty and community services of a university hospital, measuring differences in case mix, costs, and mortality in the hospital. The faculty service had more of the patients with costly diagnoses, but even after adjustment for diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), costs were 11 per cent higher on the faculty service (95 per cent confidence limits, 4 to 18 per cent). The percentage differential was greatest for diagnostic costs. The differential was particularly large--70 per cent (95 per cent confidence limits, 33 to 107 per cent)--for patients with a predicted probability of death of 0.25 or greater. The in-hospital mortality rate was significantly lower on the faculty service after adjustment for case mix and patient characteristics (P less than 0.05); the difference was particularly large for patients in the high-death-risk category. Comparison of a matched sample of 51 pairs of admissions from the high-death-risk category confirmed the above results with respect to costs and in-hospital mortality, but follow-up revealed that the survival rates were equal for the two services at nine months after discharge. The effect of prospective payment on the cost of care will be closely watched; we conclude that is will also be important to monitor the effect on outcomes, including hospital mortality rates.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Who will control health care?

American medicine could be consumed by conflict in the years to come, says a Stanford University professor. The "battle" for control of health care pits teaching hospitals against community hospitals, and physicians against hospital management.

Economic Competition↗
PubMed1982

Schooling and health: the cigarette connection.

Schooling is significantly correlated with health status, but is the relationship causal? This paper tests the hypothesis that schooling causes differences in an important health-affecting behavior: cigarette smoking. The most striking result is that for persons with 12 to 18 years of completed schooling, the strong negative relation between schooling and smoking observed at age 24 is accounted for by differences in smoking behavior at age 17, when all subjects were still in the same grade. Causality from schooling to smoking, and by implication from schooling to health, is rejected in favor of a 'third variable' hypothesis.

Adolescent↗