Utilization
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Air Ambulances – 10 Year Trends in Costs and Use
Tags: 10 Year Trend, Ambulance, Charges, Commercially Insured, Emergency Room, Outpatient Spending, Prices, Utilization
Read more: Air Ambulances – 10 Year Trends in Costs and UseAir ambulances are either fixed wing (airplane) or rotary wing (helicopter) aircraft used to transport people in often time-sensitive medical situations. Air ambulances have become a frequent topic in the news due to their high cost and propensity to lead to surprise bills. Our analysis shows that although air ambulances are not frequently used and…
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Antidepressant Use Increased for Individuals with a Mood Disorder with Employer-Sponsored Insurance
Read more: Antidepressant Use Increased for Individuals with a Mood Disorder with Employer-Sponsored InsuranceDepression is a common mood disorder that affects how people feel, think, and conduct daily activities. Approximately 17 million adults (1 in 14) had at least one major depressive episode in 2017. Surveys have found that antidepressant prescribing has increased over the past two decades. For example, a 2017 National Center for Health Statistics survey found that,…
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State Variation in Opioid Prescribing over 10 Years
Read more: State Variation in Opioid Prescribing over 10 YearsChanges in opioid utilization correlated with state-level policy changes aimed at decreasing opioid prescription rates. Previous research by HCCI illustrated that national opioid utilization in pills per person fell 27% between the years of 2008 and 2017, driven by declines in the use of hydrocodone (Vicodin). In addition to giving insight into prescription opioid utilization…
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Opioid Prescriptions Declined 32% for the Commercially Insured over 10 Years (2008 to 2017)
Read more: Opioid Prescriptions Declined 32% for the Commercially Insured over 10 Years (2008 to 2017)Among people who get health insurance from their employers (56% of the population in 2017), prescription opioid use peaked in 2010/2011 and declined every year from 2012 to 2017. In a new study using the Health Care Cost Institute’s commercial claims data from 2008 to 2017, we observed a decline regardless of how utilization was…
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Examining the adoption of a new Medicare billing code for cognitive assessments: a slow but steady uptake
Read more: Examining the adoption of a new Medicare billing code for cognitive assessments: a slow but steady uptakeOn January 1, 2017, the Medicare program started reimbursing providers for a new procedure code for clinical visits for cognitive assessments and care planning services (CPT code G0505). This newly-billable service is intended to improve the care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and hopefully increase early detection and diagnosis. A G0505 visit…
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Lower Health Care Spending and Use for People with Chronic Conditions in Consumer-Directed Health Plans
Read more: Lower Health Care Spending and Use for People with Chronic Conditions in Consumer-Directed Health PlansTo better understand differences in spending and use across types of health plans, we examine individuals enrolled in consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and individuals enrolled in non-CDHP health plans. CDHPs are a type of HDHP that typically include a health savings account (HSA) or a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). We analyzed a sample of over…
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Shifting Care from Office to Outpatient Settings: Services are Increasingly Performed in Outpatient Settings with Higher Prices
Read more: Shifting Care from Office to Outpatient Settings: Services are Increasingly Performed in Outpatient Settings with Higher PricesWhere people receive health care matters, especially in terms of costs. The same services may have a much higher price tag when performed in one setting rather than another, but this price difference is rarely publicized to patients. To understand what settings people used and how prices differed, we looked at the utilization and average…
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2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report
Tags: Drug Spending, HCCUR, Inpatient Spending, Out-of-Pocket, Outpatient Spending, Physician Spending, Prices, Utilization
Read more: 2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization ReportThe 2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report shows that spending per privately insured person grew by 4.2 percent, the second year in a row of spending growth over four percent. Price increases were the primary driver. The report covers the period 2013 through 2017 and includes claims data from four national insurance companies: Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, and…
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Trends In Primary Care Visits
Read more: Trends In Primary Care VisitsOffice visits to primary care physicians (PCPs) declined 18 percent from 2012 to 2016 for adults under 65 years old with employer-sponsored health insurance, while office visits to nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) increased 129 percent. Comparing 2012 to 2016, there were 273 fewer office visits per 1,000 insured individuals to primary care…
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2016 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report
Tags: Drug Spending, Geographic Variation, HCCUR, Inpatient Spending, Out-of-Pocket, Outpatient Spending, Physician Spending, Prices, Utilization
Read more: 2016 Health Care Cost and Utilization ReportThe 2016 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report shows that spending per privately insured person grew by 4.6 percent, faster than in previous years. Price increases were the primary driver. The report covers the period 2012 through 2016 and includes claims data from four national insurance companies: Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedHealthcare. The data in…