OBJECTIVES Previous research established that low literacy is independently associated with poorer health. Our objective was to determine whether low literacy skill also is associated with higher health care charges. METHODS We studied persons enrolled in Medicaid because of medical need/indigence by testing literacy skills in English or Spanish and measuring annual health care charges. Stati...

With the recent explosion of healthcare costs, feasibility, effectiveness, indications for use, and improved outcome with decreased cost have become the focus of our health care system. In turn, physicians are being asked to adjust their practice from that based on beliefs and anecdotal experiences to that based on evidence (i.e. evidence-based medicine). In this next lecture, we will approach ...

Governments have been thrust to the forefront of health care reform efforts as growth in government health care costs was faster than growth in all other sponsor sectors in 1991. In the business sector, real health care costs per worker have risen 65 times faster than real wages and salaries per worker during the past 26 years. Households continue to devote 5 percent of income after taxes to he...

This case study uses data from a self-insured employer plan to perform an analysis into the properties of the health care cost curve. The analysis shows that one statistical property of the health care cost curve is that costs rise continuously, not on an annual or monthly basis. Graphical analysis indicates that managed care techniques used to restrain costs can also smooth utilization, produc...

conclusions the results confirmed that the total costs for non-alcoholic fatty liver among the iranian adult urban population alone exceeded 1 billion ppp$ per year. these costs can be saved or reduced by effective disease management and early prevention. objectives this study aims to estimate the diagnosis and treatment costs of non-alcoholic fatty liver. patients and methods this cross-sectio...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Chronic heart failure is associated with high mortality and utilization of health care and social resources. The objective of this study was to quantify the use of health care and nonhealth care resources and identify variables that help to explain variability in their costs in Spain. METHODS This prospective, multicenter, observational study with a 12-month follow...

Employers are beginning to recognize that investing in the primary care foundation of the health care system may help address their problems of rising health care costs and uneven quality. Primary care faces a crisis as a growing number of U.S. medical graduates are avoiding primary care careers because of relatively low reimbursement and an unsatisfying work life. Yet a strong primary care sec...

Japan is undergoing a set of health care reforms aimed at cutting rising health care costs and increasing the efficiency of health care delivery. This empirical study used a large-scale community survey on 15,302 elderly people 65 years and older (56.0% women) conducted in seven municipalities in 2006, to reveal clear-cut evidence of barriers to necessary care. The reasons for not getting healt...