When hospitals acquire medical groups and physician practices, this consolidation can lead to higher costs, according to a study that appeared recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The JAMA study found that total expenditures per patient were higher in...
A new nationwide study confirms that patients believe physician assistants (PA) add value to healthcare teams and provide excellent patient service. The study, conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), surveyed more than 1,500 U.S. adults....
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced last week that its national telehealth programs served more than 690,000 veterans during fiscal year 2014. That total represents approximately 12% of the overall veteran population enrolled for VA healthcare, and accounted for more than 2...
Despite a recent movement to increase primary care physicians’ ability to identify mental health problems in their patients, many may still struggle to get their patients access to psychiatric care, according to a study published online earlier this week by Psychiatric Services. For the...
Are physicians less well trained as a result of work-hour reforms that cap residents’ work hours at 80 hours per week? An article in the October issue of HealthAffairs suggests duty-hour limits haven’t adversely affected hospital mortality and length-of-stay. Authors Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD...
One quarter of the hospitals around the country have been left out of some of the biggest shifts in U.S. healthcare initiated by the Affordable Care Act. The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet incorporated the 1,256 primarily rural, “critical access” hospitals into Medicare’...
