Laura Joszt, MA

Although the uninsured rate among Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 years was already lower than the national average, the rate fell by nearly a third from December 2013 to December 2014, according to a study published by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Although the vision of the learning health system is simple in theory, it is highly complicated, said Penny Mohr, senior program officer for improving healthcare systems at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, during the first plenary session at the ISPOR 20th Annual Meeting, held May 18-20 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Health insurance companies will be looking for consumers to pay more in 2016, according to Kim Holland, director for state affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, who called demands for lower premiums or monthly fees "unrealistic."

Although there has been improvement in the use of health information technology for care coordination, fewer than half of patient-centered medical homes routinely use computerized systems to identify patients seen in emergency departments or hospitals or to send care summary to other providers.

There is an association between the implementation of chronic care model elements and improvements with healthcare practice or health outcomes for people with chronic disease, according to a literature review of papers.

While offering incentives for participation in workplace wellness programs do increase participating, RAND researchers found that offering a comprehensive plan, as opposed to a limited one, is almost as effective at increasing employee uptake.

The use of an electronic personal health record-based self-management system can improve patient engagement and reduce costly falls among older adults, according to the results of a new study in eGEMs.

A very small segment of the Medicaid-only population-those who are not also eligible for Medicare-accounted for almost half of expenditures for all Medicaid-only enrollees from 2009 to 2011, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Insurers are expecting broad adoption of wearables by their industry within the next 2 years, according to a report from Accenture.

Overall, regular breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening was below target in 2013, according to a new report from the CDC. In fact, researchers found overall screening in these 3 areas showed no improvements from 2010 to 2013.

Healthcare billing and payment models must change to reflect the mobile, one-click reality of patients' lives, according to PwC's Health Research Institute. However, healthcare has been slow to evolve.

Although 30-day morbidity and mortality all declined incrementally for terminally ill cancer patients undergoing surgical intervention from 2006-2010, the number of surgeries remains high, according to a study from University of California, Davis Health System.

Earlier diagnosis, longer treatment duration, and increased effectiveness of cancer therapies all contributed to the constantly rising spending levels for these medicines.

The Pioneer ACO Model successfully reported smaller increases in total Medicare expenditures and reductions in health service utilization, for savings of approximately $385 million during the first 2 years compared with general Medicare fee-for-service.

The increased availability of urgent care centers, retail clinics, and telephone triage lines has not affected emergency department (ED) visits. In fact, three-fourths of emergency physicians report ED visits are going up.

Patients at hospitals with high rates of skilled nursing facility discharge usually have poorer outcomes and higher downstream spending, according to researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University.

Accessing patient information in a health information exchange system during the 30 days after hospital discharge reduced the odds of readmission, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

A review of clinical registries determined data collection on patient outcomes are substandard and the information is not useful for patients, physicians, and policy makers, according to a paper published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.

Although practices saw a decrease in patient visits during the 2 years after electronic health record implementation, they reported an increase in revenue during that same time period, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Industry experts at the National Association for Healthcare Quality's National Quality Summit highlighted improving care through successful care transitions.

Opioid-dependent patients treated at an emergency department (ED) who were given buprenorphine were more likely to engage in addiction treatment to reduce their opioid use, according to a study published in JAMA.

Medigap, the Medicare supplement coverage that helps fee-for-service beneficiaries fill gaps in their benefits, continues to be important for low-income beneficiaries and especially those living in rural areas, according to America's Health Insurance Plans.

A study of the use of patient portals among older Americans found clear disparities in the registration and use of this technology. The results were published in the Journal of the Americans Medical Informatics Association.

Enlisting electronic health record (EHR) super users to provide support to employees is not enough to foster EHR implementation success-super users' behaviors can be an important influence, researchers from Yale University found.

The use of a tiered network was associated with the increased use of hospitals on the preferred and middle tiers for planned hospital admissions compared with the nonpreferred tier, according to a paper in Health Services Research.

Nearly all doctors reported barriers to conducting effective end-of-life conversations with patients, and most felt that it was especially difficult to discuss with patients of a different ethnicity, according to researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Hospital patients felt an increased financial burden in 2014 due to a combination of rising procedure costs and higher deductibles, according to TransUnion Healthcare's Q4 2014 report.

Being admitted to the hospital on the weekend is associated with an increased likelihood of a hospital-acquired condition, which in turn increases cost and length of stay, reported researchers from the University of Southern California.

Adoption of alternative payment models that reduce the number of visits to the emergency department could cause unintended consequences for emergency care through a reduction in revenue, according to researchers at the Brookings Institute.

While statins can prevent disease in older adults, they can also cause potentially serious side effects that could outweigh the benefits, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.