A position paper from the American Academy of Neurology on the prescription of opioids for noncancer pain outlines “best practices” clinicians should follow to reduce patients’ risk for opioid overdose. These practices, published in Neurology, are: • At each patient visit, track pain and function using a validated instrument, and document the dose of all […]
Read MoreAuthors: Qureshi W et al., Am J Cardiol 2014 Jul 1; 114:59 An incidental finding on a screening electrocardiogram might be worth taking seriously. To evaluate the prognostic implications of atrial premature complexes (APCs) and ventricular premature complexes (VPCs) detected on a single 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) in healthy individuals, investigators analyzed NHANES III data for […]
Read MoreThe slowdown in health spending growth may be near its end, with an improved economy and increased coverage likely to bring faster growth, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary published in Health Affairs. Expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cut the number […]
Read MoreThe switch to ICD-10 poses the risk of under-reporting and over-reporting adverse events due to mismatches in codes for Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs), according to research at the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. The researchers, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, looked at 23 types of PSIs. They found three had straightforward […]
Read MoreAs insurers move forward with bundled payment initiatives, they would benefit from learning from the experiences of programs that haven’t succeeded. Though many bundled payment initiatives have improved quality and lowered costs some aren’t as fortunate. In a new Health Affairs blog post, two policy analysts discuss a bundled payment project they ran, called the […]
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