MANAGED HEALTH CARE EFFECTS: MEDICAL CARE COSTS AND ACCESS TO HEALTH INSURANCE

M edicare spending on medical imaging services reached $14 billion in 2006, more than double the 2000 spending, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in June. The GAO also found that the proportion of spending on imaging services performed in physician offices rose from 58% to 64%, whereas the proportion of spending on imaging performed in hospitals drop...

The stakes for failing to adhere to adequate protections for patient medical confidentiality keep getting higher. In addition to the already frightening scope of penalties and problems that might follow a breach of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, a recent case in Indiana dramatically highlights the increasing risk to a healthcare provider from the wrongful use and disclosure of a patient’s healthcare i...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES An estimate of the lifetime medical costs of an obese child provides a benchmark of the potential per capita savings that could accrue from successful childhood obesity prevention efforts. We reviewed the literature to identify the best current estimate of the incremental lifetime per capita medical cost of an obese child in the United States today relative to a normal...

AIM To estimate the direct medical costs of gastroenterological diseases within the universal health insurance program among the population of local residents in Taiwan. METHODS The data sources were the first 4 cohort datasets of 200,000 people from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taipei. The ambulatory, inpatient and pharmacy claims of the cohort in 2001 were analyzed. Be...

The semiparametric proportional means model specifies that the mean function for the cumulative medical cost over time conditional on a set of covariates is equal to an arbitrary baseline mean function multiplied by an exponential regression function. We demonstrate how to estimate the vector-valued regression parameter using possibly censored lifetime costs. The estimator is consistent and asy...

Since 1975, 26 states have repealed or modified their motorcycle (M/C) helmet laws. Louisiana (LA) reinstated the M/C helmet law in 1982. The medical and financial impact of repeal in Kansas (KS), reinstatement in LA (accident, fatality, and critical injury rates) have been studied through 1987. Current FARS data and studies from KS, LA, 10 states and 5 countries are compared and reported. With...