News From The Annals Of Family Medicine: March April 2012
Four articles in the current issue draw attention to policy initiatives and implications of the rapidly changing U.S. health care environment. Collectively, they examine some of the challenges and opportunities facing the country following the 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Researchers Project Cost of Family Health Insurance Premiums Will Surpass Household Income by 2033 Updating estimates of who will be able to afford health insurance in the future in light of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that reformed health care payment in the United States, researchers now estimate that the cost of an average family insurance premium will surpass household income by 2033.
Analysing Pre-Nursing Home Hospitalization Of Alzheimer's disease Patients And Medicare Costs
Among the key findings of a novel analysis of Alzheimer's disease-related Medicare expenditures, is that the federal insurer faces particularly high payments for hospitalization during the period between when patients are first diagnosed and when they enter long-term care. A new study that tracked what Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) costs Medicare during three distinct stages of patient care suggests that the government insurer could realize substantial savings through efforts to reduce the hospitalizations that occur before patients became permanent nursing home residents.
Minorities, Medicaid Patients Less Likely To Be Prescribed Antidepressants
African-Americans and Hispanics with major depressive disorder are less likely to get antidepressants than Caucasian patients, and Medicare and Medicaid patients are less likely to get the newest generation of antidepressants. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health examined data from 1993 to 2007 to try to understand the antidepressant prescribing patterns of physicians. They looked at two things: who received antidepressants, and what type of antidepressant was prescribed.