Nonadherence is common among high-risk patients initiating statins and is associated with suboptimal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) reduction. LDL-C should be monitored to identify suboptimal response and medication nonadherence.
Higher cost sharing is associated with reduced branded antidepressant initiation among patients trying generic therapy. Dynamic benefit designs could enhance access to branded medications when appropriate.
Hospitalization is costly and associated with the potential for adverse medical events. Hospitalists are uniquely positioned to help avoid unnecessary emergency department admissions through consultation.
We present an International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) translation of the adapted Diabetes Complications Severity Index and show its performance in predicting hospitalizations, mortality, and healthcare-associated costs.
Medicare Advantage customer service supports a less healthy, higher-need population, indicating that it should be designed and staffed to effectively serve complex, high-need patients.
Rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment in a commercially insured population doubled after availability of new direct-acting antivirals. Member out-of-pocket spending was kept low while the health plan bore 99% of spending on HCV medications.
Although health plan accountable care models have evolved provider readiness, data, analytics, and the use of performance measurement are important components of plan-provider partnerships.
This article provides an assessment of the downstream impact of coronary artery calcium scanning on the subsequent treatment patterns of non—high-risk patients.
In order to encourage dissemination, this commentary is freely available in PLoS Medicine, and will also be published in Medical Decision Making, Croatian Medical Journal, The Cochrane Library, Trials, and Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.
Even if they leave average cost the same, interventions that decrease cost variability have economic value.
Overuse of rescue medication among asthma patients is associated with increased exacerbations and higher total and asthma-related healthcare costs.
Health-related quality-of-life data are often collected during routine clinical care. We present a method to create nationally representative benchmarks for clinical subspecialties.
This article describes lessons learned over the past 10 years while helping several dozen primary care settings implement evidence-based, cost-saving behavioral screening and intervention.
Asthma control, rather than compliance with the HEDIS asthma measure, is the most useful quality indicator of asthma care.
Efficacy of switching statin therapy from generic simvastatin was examined in a VA population. Ezetimibe/simvastatin was more potent than atorvastatin or rosuvastatin in lowering LDL.
Results of our pilot randomized controlled intervention involving emergency department (ED)-based care coordination and community health workers demonstrated a trend toward fewer ED visits, fewer hospitalizations, and lower costs among intervention patients.
Prescription cost and pharmacy convenience were identified as the most significant drivers of out-of-plan pharmacy use.
This review suggests that only a few primary care quality measures, which usually are not found in claims data, have significant clinical and financial impact.
This paper identified 4 factors associated with implementation success of e-consults in 8 VA medical centers, with implications for implementing similar health IT initiatives elsewhere.