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PubMed1996

Infertility treatment dropout and insurance coverage.

OBJECTIVE: To assess early patient dropout rates during infertility treatment as a potential measure of wasted resources. METHODS: The study involved multifaceted population cohorts, including a prospectively observed captive health maintenance organization (HMO) population and retrospectively selected preferred provider organization (PPO) patients. One hundred twenty-eight HMO couples were followed prospectively for 6 months. The insurance carrier retroactively selected 96 couples from their PPO population who were believed to be infertility patients. They were matched by date, age, and time of hysterosalpingography to infertility patients in the carrier's HMO population. Patients were considered treatment dropouts if they either requested their provider to abandon further work-up or treatment, or if they failed to return for an appointment for 3 months. RESULTS: Forty-six of 128 (36%) HMO patients followed prospectively discontinued care within 180 days, with only eight (6.3%) providing defined reasons. Preferred provider organization patients uniformly demonstrated significantly higher dropout rates than HMO patients, a finding already apparent at 60 days (P < .002; odds ratio [OR] 3.67, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.47-9.97) and 120 days of treatment (P = .002; OR 2.87, 95% CI 1.39-6.06). Among PPO patients, dropout rates were especially pronounced if infertility care was provided by generalists. At billing levels of at least $2000, HMO patients also demonstrated less dropout than PPO patients (P < .001; OR 6.14, 95% CI 2.72-14.79), with generalists again demonstrating a significantly larger patient loss than infertility specialists (P < .001; OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.66-0.49). CONCLUSION: Infertility patients demonstrate a surprisingly large early dropout rate, which is significantly larger if patients receive infertility care from generalists rather than specialists. Newly presenting infertility patients should be carefully evaluated, especially in indemnity situations, before expensive diagnostic and therapeutic interventions are ordered.

Adult↗

PubMed1986

The changing health care environment.

In 1985, the rate of growth of national health expenditures was more than twice the overall rate of growth in prices in the United States, while the percentage of health expenditures relative to the Gross National Product reached a record high of 10.7 percent. There have been almost no changes in the fraction of direct patient payments for medical care since 1980, or in the fraction paid by third parties or the government. Consequently, cost increases in the gross price of medical care are being transferred directly to the patient population. The expense associated with medical treatment and the availability of managed care systems (Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations, among others) have contributed to the increasing cost consciousness of patient and physician alike. One of the areas in which the spiralling costs of medical care are most deeply felt is in the treatment of hypertension. The direct costs for treating this condition, which affects more than 25 percent of the American population, exceed $8 billion annually. Furthermore, hypertension is a chronic condition in which the cost of treatment is continuously apparent to the patient. Moderate and severe hypertension is more likely to affect elderly and black patients, the people who are least able to pay for therapy. Difficulty in paying for therapy is becoming an increasingly important problem due to the trend among physicians to prescribe newer and more expensive antihypertensive drugs instead of the more commonly used diuretics and beta blockers. Due to the cost-conscious attitude of patients, the physician who chooses the more expensive drugs may run the risk of losing patronage among middle- and upper-income patients. In the case of lower-income patients, prescribing expensive drugs may result in noncompliance. In order to guard against incursions by managed care systems and ensure the best care for low-income patients, physicians must assume a cost-conscious attitude toward the treatment of hypertension.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Small area analysis of hospital discharges for musculoskeletal diseases in Michigan: the influence of socioeconomic factors.

PURPOSE: The rise in health care costs has occasioned a number of initiatives in an attempt to reduce the rate of increase. Despite the growth of health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations and the introduction of Medicare's prospective payment system, health care costs have continued to increase. Coincident with these efforts, a number of researchers have shown that there exists wide variation in age-adjusted hospital discharge rates, which translate into significant variation in per capita expenditures. Much of the focus on the reasons for hospital admission variability has been on physician practice variation. If most of the variation in hospital discharge rates is due to physician practice style, then payment systems can be developed (e.g., capitation) that limit physician practice variation without harming patients. We examined socioeconomic factors in Michigan communities to assess their association with hospital discharge rates for patients with musculoskeletal diseases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data on hospital discharges from 1980 and 1987 were taken from the Michigan Inpatient Data Base. All admissions from the major diagnostic category 8, diagnosis-related group (DRG) 209-256 were included. Zip code-specific hospitalization data were grouped into small geographic areas or hospital market communities (HMCs). Discharge rates were calculated, and profiles of the socioeconomic characteristics of each of the HMCs were developed. A Poisson regression model with an extrasystematic component of variance was used to analyze the association of HMC socioeconomic characteristics with age-adjusted hospital use. RESULTS: We found that four socioeconomic variables, average annual income per capita, percent of the population with four years of college, percent of the population living in an urban area, and percent of families with incomes below the poverty line, explained 26.6% (R2) of the variation in overall hospital discharge rates (p less than 0.001). Moreover, we found that the ability of the model to explain variability was influenced by the type of disease, and that these socioeconomic variables had a consistent effect across the range of DRGs. Finally, we noted that, over the period of 1980 to 1987, socioeconomic factors remained important in explaining hospital use despite the dramatic changes in the delivery of care over this period. CONCLUSION: Socioeconomic factors play a significant role in explaining the observed variation in hospital discharge rates for musculoskeletal diseases. Models utilizing only physician practice variation to account for the population-based differences in discharge rates are overly simplistic. In order to ensure that vulnerable subsets of the population are not harmed by the introduction of cost-containment strategies based on simplistic models, more attention must be paid to the socioeconomic and epidemiologic factors related to hospital use.

Bone Diseases↗

PubMed2004

Persistency with latanoprost or timolol in primary open-angle glaucoma suspects.

PURPOSE: To evaluate persistency of pharmacotherapy in primary open-angle glaucoma suspects (glaucoma suspects) treated with latanoprost and timolol. DESIGN: Retrospective, cohort study using the Protocare Sciences managed care database; approximately 3 million members in commercial health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations and in Medicare risk plans. METHODS: Patients 20 years of age or older beginning therapy between January 1, 1997, and June 30, 2002, with latanoprost or timolol monotherapy were included. Patients must have been continuously enrolled and not undergone glaucoma surgery in the year preceding the index prescription fill and had glaucoma suspect diagnoses before and after the index date. Prescription refill records for all ocular hypotensives were extracted through June 30, 2002. The two outcome measures were (1) discontinuation of index drug, and (2) either discontinuation or change in index drug. Changing therapy was defined as switching to or adding another ocular hypotensive. Rates of discontinuation and discontinuation/change were compared using Cox regression models. RESULTS: In all, 1,474 patients met the inclusion criteria. Latanoprost was prescribed for 583 patients (40%) and timolol for 891 (60%). Compared with latanoprost, those treated with timolol were 39% more likely to discontinue and 27% more likely to discontinue/change therapy (P <.001 for both comparisons). At 12 months, 39% of patients receiving latanoprost and 25% of those treated with timolol had not discontinued therapy; no discontinuation or change in therapy was seen in 30% and 18%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Latanoprost-treated glaucoma suspects demonstrated significantly greater persistency than did patients treated with timolol. The reasons for this difference and its impact on intraocular pressure control and disease progression require further research.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Patient persistency with topical ocular hypotensive therapy in a managed care population.

PURPOSE: To evaluate persistency with topical ocular hypotensive therapies in patients new to pharmacological management of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). DESIGN: Retrospective, cohort study; Protocare Sciences managed care database; approximately 3 million members in commercial health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations and in Medicare risk plans. METHODS: Patients were at least 20 years of age initiating therapy between July 1, 1996, and June 30, 2002, with betaxolol, bimatoprost, brimonidine, dorzolamide, latanoprost, timolol, or travoprost as monotherapy. Patients must have been continuously enrolled and not have received glaucoma surgery in the 180 days before the index prescription fill. Prescription refill records for all ocular hypotensive drugs were extracted through June 30, 2002. Outcome measures were (1) discontinuation of index drug, and (2) either discontinuation or change in index drug. Changing therapy was defined as switching to or adding another ocular hypotensive. Rates of discontinuation and discontinuation/change were compared using Cox regression models. RESULTS: In all, 28,741 patients met the inclusion criteria. Compared with latanoprost, those treated with other drugs were from 37% (timolol) to 72% (bimatoprost) more likely to discontinue and from 20% (timolol) to 58% (dorzolamide) more likely to discontinue/change therapy (P <.001 for all comparisons). At 12 months, 33% of patients treated with latanoprost and 19% of those receiving other ocular hypotensives had not discontinued therapy; 23% and 13%, respectively, had not discontinued or changed therapy. Compared with latanoprost, significantly higher percentages of patients treated with each alternate agent had only one fill of their index drugs (P <.001). CONCLUSIONS: Although persistency rates were low across agents, latanoprost-treated patients demonstrated significantly greater persistency than did those treated with other topical ocular hypotensive therapies.

Administration, Topical↗

PubMed1996

Optometric record keeping in a comprehensive health care environment.

Optometric records which have evolved in private practice must be reconsidered when included in a comprehensive care environment. These hospital, health maintenance organization (HMO), preferred provider organization, and similarly linked systems require a higher degree of communication among specialties than do self-standing practices. Furthermore, the administrative requirements of such a system require more standardization, cost sensitivity, medicolegal compliance, and other elements pecular to a comprehensive facility. The expended scope of care provided by optometrists within a hospital requires familiarity with a new range of procedures, languages, and reports. Information from laboratories, radiology, and other areas must be incorporated into the optometric record. Continuity of care is more complex. Opportunities for strong interprofessional synergies within the organization arise directly from proactivity in optometric record keeping. New legal hot spots arise from questions of records ownership, access, and privacy. Billing procedures are becoming extremely important, with significant effects on quality assurance audits, coding, doctor "profiling" against fraud, and abuse; these priorities can interfere with clinical priorities. Driven primarily by the concerns and resources of large third-party payers, technology is making rapid changes in the form of optometric record keeping in comprehensive systems. Electronic data management will change the face of medical records, although administrative data will be digitized much more quickly than clinical notes. Comprehensive care environments will be the "test beds" for these technologies. Optometry is in a good position to show its contribution to the health care team through leadership in the implementation of new record keeping models.

Comprehensive Health Care↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The new medical marketplace: physicians' views.

The transformation of the medical marketplace has major implications for the physician workforce. Findings are reported here from national surveys of physicians, hospitals, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and medical group practices conducted in 1995 to measure the impact of those changes. Physicians in higher HMO penetration states were more likely to report serious problems with several aspects of medical practice and patient care and were more likely to perceived oversupply in their specialty areas and changes in their practice arrangements. Some divergence is noted in views of supply between physicians and those that employ them. The majority of physicians would still recommend medicine and their specialty as a career.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2006

Reports to the National Practitioner Data Bank involving dentists, 1990-2004.

BACKGROUND: While the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) contains reports relating to dentists, an analysis of these data has not been published. METHODS: The authors analyze 47,441 reports to the NPDB relating to malpractice payments, licensure actions and adverse actions against dentists from Sept. 1, 1990, to Sept. 30, 2004. RESULTS: A total of 13.2 percent of all NPDB reports were related to dentists. Of these, 73.7 percent resulted from malpractice actions and the remaining 26.3 percent were from adverse actions. While the number of large payments increased over this period, the median payment remained relatively stable. CONCLUSIONS: Dental malpractice settlements and judgments generally have kept pace with inflation over the past decade. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Dentists should be aware that the NPDB retains reports of adverse actions and malpractice settlements and judgments indefinitely. These reports are available to hospitals evaluating their credentials, state licensing boards and certain health care entities (for example, health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations) entering into an employment or other relationship with them.

Dentists↗

PubMed1994

The ethical considerations of managed care in mental health treatment.

1. Managed care as a cost-cutting technique is becoming increasingly prevalent; one reason for its growth is the increasing number of people covered by health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations. 2. Ethical areas of concern raised by managed care include restrictions on patient autonomy of choice of treatment and treatment site; relationship between the nurse as a managed care agent and the patient; patient responsibility in treatment decisions made through managed care; and denial, curtailment, or alteration of access to treatment based on compliance. 3. Managed care is a tool to conserve and equitably distribute care resources. To be certain that managed care performs this function equitably, the profession must continue to examine managed care in the light of biomedical ethics.

Community Mental Health Services↗

PubMed1990

Directions in contracting for psychiatric services managed care firms.

An "irresistible force" has surely emerged in American healthcare; its name is Managed Care. It's a force embarked on an economic holy war, fired by the passions and anxieties of a competitive market economy that now seems uncommitted to spending more on health services. Its army is made up of an ununited confederation of utilization review organizations, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), exclusive provider organizations (EPOs), and a number of other entities that have been enlisted to restrain++ the medical-industrial complex. In their march across America, they have frequently assailed the shibboleths and established structures of treatment systems, especially psychiatry and often fought with one another. While some are mercenary forces, others appear as peoples' armies, committed to preserving and strengthening the healthcare system they are transforming. As it encounters the inhabitants of this domain, Managed Care becomes both their master and their slave. As with any occupying force, it must win their hearts and minds over to the new way of doing things. The winning-over process is not going well now. Many patients and providers are angry at the inefficiencies, unproven effectiveness, administrative burdens, affronts to traditions, and threats to quality sometimes posed by Managed Care. This collective unrest has resulted in both a mounting resistance to the problems emanating from managed care changes in the healthcare system and a call to check its unrestrained incursions into professional practice through regulation. The growing tension between what seems an irresistible force and an immovable object can be viewed as part of the natural evolution of all change, particularly in a free market or in a society with requisite checks and balances.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Contract Services↗

PubMed1991

Payment of hospital cardiac services.

This report describes how acute-care community hospitals in the United States get paid for services when their patients either are entitled to Medicare or Medicaid benefits or subscribe to a Blue Cross or Blue Shield plan, a commercial insurance plan, a health maintenance organization, a preferred provider organization, or some other third-party payment mechanism. The focus of this report is on cardiac services, which are the most common type of inpatient services provided by acute-care community hospitals. Over the past three decades, extraordinary advances in medical and surgical technologies as well as healthier life-styles have cut the annual death rate for coronary heart disease in half. Despite this progress, cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of hospitalization. On average nationwide, diseases and disorders of the circulatory system are the primary reason for 17 percent of all patient admissions, and among the nation's 35 million Medicare beneficiaries they are the primary reason for 25 percent of all admissions. In the United States heart disease is the leading cause of death and a major cause of morbidity. Its diagnosis and treatment are often complex and costly, often requiring multiple hospitalizations and years of medical management. To focus management attention and resources on the immense cardiology marketplace, many hospitals have hired individuals with strong clinical backgrounds to manage their cardiology programs. These "front-line" managers play a key role in coordinating a hospital's services for patients with cardiovascular disease. Increasingly, these managers are being asked to become active participants in the reimbursement process. This report was designed to meet their needs. Because this report describes common reimbursement principles and practices applicable to all areas of hospital management and because it provides a "tool kit" of analytical, planning, and forecasting techniques, it could also be useful to hospital marketing, planning, finance, and accounting personnel. In addition, the rich reservoir of data contained in the appendixes to this report may be of interest to hospital chief executive officers, cardiologists, and cardiovascular surgeons. In addition to the introduction and summary sections, this report contains five main sections. Sequentially, these deal with: the ways hospitals get paid for what they do; ICD-9 coding DRGs, PPS, and Medicare claims administration; ways to analyze how well your hospital is doing; planning and forecasting; the new Resource-Based Relative Value Scale.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Abstracting and Indexing↗

PubMed1986

Efficiently-run practices--ways to keep costs in line.

Containment of health care costs is a serious concern today for everyone, including the local, state and federal governments, industry and the private sector. Physicians are looked at as the "bad guys" in the cost containment battle as publicity focuses on the high cost of office visits, procedures, tests and hospital charges. When you add to that the additional image of the "rich doctor," it is easy to understand why so much attention is paid to the doctor as the perceived reason for the high costs of care. Medical practices are also guilty of fostering that image as patients perceive an inefficient approach about the business side of medicine. And, as an inefficient office usually adds to a practice's overhead, someone must be expected to cover that extra cost. That someone, unfortunately, is the patient--either by a direct payment of increased fees or by the added cost of the insurance premium. What follows are some basic items of good business management that should help cut your practice expenses, whether you are solo or part of a group practice. The streamlining of your practice should enable you to keep your costs--and your fees--in line. And, as medicine changes with health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations becoming more of a factor, it will be essential for your practice to be cost efficient to compete.

Cost Control↗

PubMed1988

Hospital competition, cost, and medical practice.

The hospital market in the United States has always been competitive, but the nature of that competition has changed in the last few years. In the past, when most patients had third party coverage which reimbursed hospitals for incurred costs, competition focused on quality and services as hospitals sought to attract physicians and their patients. This competition led to duplication of services and facilities in a "medical arms race" which resulted in higher, rather than lower, costs in areas with many hospitals. Hospitals with many neighbors even had longer lengths of stay for patients undergoing specific surgical procedures. Now, with Medicare's Prospective Payment System offering fixed payments for patients with a given diagnosis, there are strong pressures for cost containment. These pressures will have their greatest impact in areas with the most hospitals, especially when health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations contract selectively with some hospitals. Hospitals, in turn, will be less responsive to cost-increasing requests by their medical staffs.

Cost Control↗

PubMed1991

Managed-care plans. Their future under national health insurance.

The nation's health maintenance organizations, preferred-provider organizations, independent practice associations, and similar managed-care efforts are not well positioned to take a leadership role in a nationwide universal access or national health insurance plan. They--with the possible exception of some large staff and group health maintenance organizations--have been unable to show uniformly that they can contain costs, provide better access or higher quality of care, and achieve greater patient satisfaction than fee-for-service endeavors. As the United States pursues universal access as a step toward national health insurance, the managed-care plans will continue to increase their numbers of subscribers. They will not, however, be able to enroll large numbers of the young, low-income employees and their dependents who account for most of the 63 million people uninsured sometime during each year. Under national health insurance, there might be an option for some health maintenance organizations to negotiate capitated payments. The vast majority of the nation's physicians, however, will reluctantly embrace a centrally managed fee-for-service approach rather than a salary or capitated reimbursement method, leaving only a trace of the competitive managed-care plan theme in a future, primarily monolithic, national health care system.

Health Maintenance Organizations↗

PubMed1989

Managed health care.

The fundamental components of managed-care plans are described; the development of managed-care programs is discussed; and the impact of managed care on pharmacy services and the price, quality, and accessibility of health care are reviewed. Health care can be considered to be managed when at least one of the following fundamental components is present: prospective pricing, "UCR" (usual, customary, and reasonable) pricing of services, peer review, mandatory use review, benefit redesign, capitation payments, channeling, quality criteria, and health promotion. The managed-care industry consists of health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and managed fee-for-service plans. Managed-care reimbursement principles involve transferring some or all of the impetus for controlling use of services to the health-care provider. Means by which this is done include prospective pricing, services bundling, price discounts and negotiated fees, and capitation financing and reimbursement. Financial risk-sharing arrangements with providers--including hospitals, physicians, pharmacies, and home-care companies--are necessary for any managed-care plan to attain true control over its service costs. Use-review and use-management services are also fundamental to containing health-care spending. These include retrospective, concurrent, and prospective reviews of the necessity and appropriateness of medical services. Use management, like services bundling and prospective pricing, has been more effective in reducing costs of hospital inpatient services than costs associated with ambulatory care. Per case payments and services bundling have made individual charges for items irrelevant to hospital revenue. This has forced hospital pharmacy managers to become more sensitive to cost management. Drug formularies, improved productivity, and use of prescribing protocols are means by which hospital pharmacies have controlled costs. However, since shorter hospital stays are not associated with a linear decline in the need for drug therapy, reducing pharmacy operating expenses in proportion to the decline in hospital occupancy is probably not possible. Community pharmacies have responded to managed care by forming pharmacy services administrative organizations. Application of managed-care principles has reduced the use of inpatient hospital services by Medicare beneficiaries, helped HMOs and PPOs to lower prices for some services, reduced use of hospital services by HMO members, and redirected some inpatient hospital care to alternate-care providers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Capitation Fee↗

PubMed1988

The public's view of the future of health care.

An analysis of more than two decades of poll results has identified six major trends in public opinion likely to affect the health care system of the 1990s. Americans favor more rather than less health spending, at least as long as the economy remains strong, and they do not think the deficit problem requires cuts in medical care outlays. Should there be a serious economic downturn, however, the public would reverse itself and would favor reduced spending that relies on a different set of strategies than those favored by most health policy experts, particularly in regard to spending for care for the elderly. In either case, the poll results suggest that Americans may be less inclined to participate in newer forms of medical practice, such as health maintenance organizations or preferred provider organizations, than anticipated, and that the commercialization of health care is leading to a decline in public confidence in the leaders of medicine. This latter trend may result in a lack of trust in professionals' views concerning the quality of care and may presage more stringent government involvement in and regulation of health services.

Cost Control↗

PubMed1987

HMOs and PPOs in review.

The significance of the growth of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs) hinges on the reliability of the reported figures, which may not be accurate. The greatest changes in the industry over the past 3 months were evidenced in the areas of federal legislation regarding Medicare beneficiaries and military personnel, and within the industry itself, with numerous joint ventures and acquisitions. Dynamic changes continue, and the actors are becoming more clearly defined.

Health Benefit Plans, Employee↗

PubMed1991

How fast are hospital prices really rising?

The hospital services component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the cost of hospital services to private patients paying list prices. It is, however, widely used as an estimate of the overall rate of inflation in hospital prices in spite of the fact that there are strong reasons to believe that it is inappropriate to use the CPI for this purpose. This is because: 1) A growing number of patients are enrolled in health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs), which negotiate discounts from list prices; and 2) the size of the discounts may have been increasing. The potential result is a gap between the rate of inflation of list prices and the rate of inflation of actual prices paid in transactions. This study explores whether such a gap exists and determines its possible magnitude. In addition, parallel indices for list and actual prices are computed on the basis of data from California hospitals for fiscal years 1983-1988. The analysis suggests that list price inflation has greatly exceeded actual inflation--by a factor of two for recent years. These findings have broad implications for evaluating not only inflation but also the impact of cost containment strategies.

Abstracting and Indexing↗