Background Concerns about the long term sustainability of health care expenditures and in particular prescribing expenditures has become an important policy issue in most developed countries. Previous studies suggest that proximity to death (PTD) has a significant effect on total health care expenditures, with its exclusion leading to an overestimation of likely growth. There are limited studie...

Legislation proposed in the 100th Congress and debated during the summer of 1987 would cover prescription drug spending by Medicare enrollees after the enrollee had met a deductible. However, at the time that the legislation was proposed, there were no comprehensive estimates of the extent of current expenditures for prescription drugs by that population, nor of the expected cost of the propose...

Using the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey and theMedical Expenditure Panel Surveys in 2000–2001 and 2010–2011, we compared per person medical expenditures and uses among adults ‡18 years of age with or without diabetes at the three time points. Types of medical services included inpatient care, emergency room (ER) visits, outpatient visits, prescription drugs, and others. We also exami...

OBJECTIVE Diabetes care has changed substantially in the past 2 decades. We examined the change in medical spending and use related to diabetes between 1987 and 2011. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey and the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys in 2000-2001 and 2010-2011, we compared per person medical expenditures and uses among adults ≥ 18 years of...

PURPOSE Factors likely to influence drug expenditures, drug expenditure trends in 2012, and projected drug expenditures for U.S. nonfederal hospitals and clinics in 2013 are discussed. METHODS Prescription drug expenditure data for 2011 through September 2012 were obtained from the IMS Health National Sales Perspectives database. Expenditure projections were based on a combination of quantita...

BACKGROUND In view of rapidly increasing prescription costs, case-mix adjustment should be considered for effective control of costs. We have estimated the variability in pharmacy costs explained by ACG in centers using patient electronic records, profiled centers and physicians and analyzed the correlation between cost and quality of prescription. METHODS We analyzed 65,630 patient records a...

BACKGROUND National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance stated that a new form of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) (selective COX-2 inhibitors) should only be an option for arthritis patients at high risk of a gastro-intestinal (GI) event. Total expenditure on NSAIDs has risen by 57% over five years, to 247 pounds sterling million in 2004. We assess whether t...

OBJECTIVE To determine the factors related to pharmaceutical expenditure per primary care physician in the province of Cuenca, which could allow public health authorities to take decisions to curb expenditure. Determining these factors could also be of interest to primary care physicians, specialists, health authorities, health economists, and health management researchers. METHODS We perform...

BACKGROUND Inappropriate prescription of antibiotics may contribute towards higher levels antimicrobial resistance. A key intervention for improving appropriate antibiotic prescription is surveillance of prescription. This paper presents the results of a longitudinal surveillance of broad-spectrum antibiotic prescription in 5 public-sector hospitals in Singapore from 2006 to 2010. METHODOLOGY...