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you,
The
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At Medicare is Simple, we look to educate and enable you to choose among Medicare plans to help find the policy that may best fit your needs. Get free quotes using our advanced quoting technology. HealthCare Reform is also a hot topic of interest to people of all ages, and we look to keep you updated on the issues relevant to learning more. Medicare Is Simple 800-442-4915
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Coverage Rate for Homeless Rose to 67% in Medicaid Expansion States
Kaiser Family Foundation recently conducted a study on the impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion on Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) projects. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
In Medicaid expansion
states, the coverage rate for the homeless rose from 45% in 2012 to 67% in
2014.
·
The coverage rate
increased from 26% to 30% in non-expansion states.
·
In expansion states,
total revenues for HCH projects in 2014 were 7% higher than total revenues in
2013.
·
Revenues for HCH
projects in non-expansion states increased by 2%.
·
Third party payments
increased to 43% of funding for HCH projects in expansion states.
·
Half (49%) of total
revenue for HCH projects in expansion states came from grants in 2014.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, March 15, 2016
According to a recent study of the electronic logs of 3 large practices,
... primary
care physicians received a mean of 76.9.electronic notifications each day,
while specialists received a mean of only 29.1 notifications per day.
Source: "The Burden of Inbox Notifications in Commercial Electronic Health Records," JAMA Internal Medicine, March 14, 2016, http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2500026
Source: "The Burden of Inbox Notifications in Commercial Electronic Health Records," JAMA Internal Medicine, March 14, 2016, http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2500026
According to a recent study:
- 29%
of patients with health care-associated infections were readmitted to the
hospital, compared with 16.5% of those who did not develop an HAI
- 9.3%
of total bed days were linked to excess length of stay due to an HAI
- 11.4%
of total costs were due to excess length of stay
- The
1-year overall mortality rate for patients with an HAI was 1.75, compared
to all other patients
Source: "Direct health care costs and length of
hospital stay related to health care-acquired infections in adult patients
based on point prevalence measurements," American Journal of Infection
Control, abstract only, March 14, 2016, http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(16)00140-1/abstract
$470 billion ...
... was saved in Medicare
between 2009 and 2014 because of a slowdown in the growth of health care
spending, according to a March 22 report from HHS.
"We estimate that the 12.7 million [ACA] signups ...
... so far
represent 46% of the 'potential market' for the marketplaces. The potential
market includes people who are uninsured or purchasing their own coverage. It
excludes those who have an employer offer of insurance, are eligible for
Medicaid, are undocumented immigrants, or who have incomes below the poverty
level and live in states that have not expanded Medicaid."
— From a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation that looks at current Affordable Care Act exchange enrollment.
— From a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation that looks at current Affordable Care Act exchange enrollment.
According to a recent study based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey...
the following percentages of U.S. adults achieved any of four basic behavioral characteristics that researchers say would constitute a “healthy lifestyle”:
- 71.5%
did not smoke
- 37.9%
ate a healthy diet
- 9.6%
had a normal body fat percentage
- 46.5%
were sufficiently active
- Only
2.7% of all adults had all four healthy lifestyle characteristics,
while16% had three, 36.8% had two, 33.5% had one, and 11.1% had none
Source: "Healthy Lifestyle Characteristics and Their
Joint Association With Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers in US Adults,"
Mayo Clinic Proceedings, March 21, 2016, http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(16)00043-4/fulltext
Top Five Wearable Vendors Market Share 2015 by "Unit Shipments"
1. FitBit: 26.9% - 21.0 Million units
2. Xiaomi: 15.4% - 12.0 Million units 3. Apple: 14.9% - 11.6 Million units 4. Garmin: 4.2% - 3.3 Million units 5. Samsung: 4.0% - 3.1 Million units Others: 34.5% - 34.5 Million units
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, February 23, 2016
2.7% of US Adults Achieve All Four Healthy Behaviors
Researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Mississippi recently conducted a study on four healthy lifestyle behaviors (good diet, moderate exercise, recommended body fat percentage, non-smoking) in U.S. adults. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
2.7% of all adults had
all four healthy lifestyle characteristics, while 16% had three.
·
37% had two, 34% had
one, and 11% had none of the healthy lifestyle characteristics.
·
Mexican American
adults were more likely to eat a healthy diet than non-Hispanic white or black
adults.
·
Women were more likely
to not smoke and eat a healthy diet, but less likely to be sufficiently active.
·
1 in 10 had a normal
body fat percentage and 46% were sufficiently active.
·
71% adults did not
smoke and 38% ate a healthy diet.
Source: Oregon State University, March 21, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
CMS finalizes mental health and substance use disorder parity rule for Medicaid and CHIP
CMS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
CMS Media Relations
March 29, 2016
(202) 690-6145 | CMS Media Inquiries
CMS
finalizes mental health and substance use disorder parity rule for Medicaid and
CHIP
Final
rule strengthens access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits
for low-income Americans
In conjunction with the President’s
visit to the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, the Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services (CMS) today finalized a rule to strengthen access to
mental health and substance use services for people with Medicaid or Children’s
Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage, aligning with protections already
required of private health plans. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity
Act of 2008 generally requires that health insurance plans treat mental health
and substance use disorder benefits on equal footing as medical and surgical
benefits.
“The Affordable Care Act provided
one of the largest expansions of mental health and substance use disorder
coverage in a generation,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said. “Today’s rule
eliminates a barrier to coverage for the millions of Americans who for too long
faced a system that treated behavioral health as an unequal priority. It
represents a critical step in our effort to ensure that everyone has access to
the care they need.
“This rule will also increase
access to evidence-based treatment to help more people get the help they need
for their recovery and is critical in our comprehensive approach to addressing
the serious opioid epidemic facing our nation.”
“The need to strengthen access to
mental health and substance use disorder services is clear,” said Vikki
Wachino, Deputy Administrator of CMS and Director of the Center for Medicaid
and CHIP Services. “This final rule will help states strengthen care delivery and
support low-income individuals in accessing the services and treatment they
need to be healthy.”
The protections set forth in this
final rule will benefit the over 23 million people enrolled in Medicaid managed
care organizations (MCOs), Medicaid alternative benefit plans (ABPs), and CHIP.
Currently, states have flexibility to provide services through a managed care
delivery mechanism using entities other than Medicaid managed care
organizations, such as prepaid inpatient health plans or prepaid ambulatory
health plans. The final rule maintains state flexibility in this area while
guaranteeing that Medicaid enrollees are able to access these important mental
health and substance use services in the same manner as medical benefits.
Under the final rule, plans must
disclose information on mental health and substance use disorder benefits upon
request, including the criteria for determinations of medical necessity. The
final rule also requires the state to disclose the reason for any denial of
reimbursement or payment for services with respect to mental health and
substance use disorder benefits.
This is one of our latest efforts
to increase access to and improve mental health services and care for low
income individuals, especially in light of the opioid abuse epidemic, which
constitute significant health risks and cost drivers in the Medicaid program.
We introduced several initiatives to assist states with behavioral health
system transformation to better meet the needs of beneficiaries with substance
use disorders:
- In 2014, CMS launched the Innovation Accelerator
Program, a new strategic and technical support platform designed to
improve delivery systems for beneficiaries that are high need and high
cost. Our first effort in this area was to provide states with expert
resources, coaching opportunities and individualized technical assistance
to accelerate policy, program and payment reforms appropriate for a robust
substance use disorder delivery system.
- In July 2015, CMS issued guidance to states on a new
section 1115 demonstration opportunity to develop a full continuum of care
for beneficiaries with a substance use disorder, including coverage for
short-term residential treatment services not otherwise covered by
Medicaid.
- In response to the growing prescription opioid abuse
epidemic, CMS recently released information on effective safeguards and
options to help address over-prescribing of opioid pain medications.
- CMS disseminated important information regarding
screening and early intervention services for children and youth who have
or may have a mental illness or substance use disorder, including best
practice information for the delivery of medication-assisted treatment as
well as services and supports that can address first psychiatric episodes
to reduce the likelihood of ongoing hospitalizations, involvement with
police and courts, and increase the chances of keeping families intact.
The final rule is currently on
display at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection
and will be published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2016.
For more
information, go to http://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid-chip-program-information/by-topics/benefits/mental-health-services.html.
CMS will be hosting a webinar, “Agent and Broker Tips for Assisting in the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplaces,”
Wednesday, April 20 from 1:00 PM to
2:30 PM Eastern Time.
CMS subject matter experts will
provide tips for agents and brokers on how they can use the SHOP Marketplace
effectively, including:
- The benefits of the SHOP
Marketplace for agents and brokers
- How to access training
on the SHOP Marketplace Agent/Broker Portal
- A review of the SHOP
Marketplace employer and employee applications
To register for the webinar, please
log in to www.REGTAP.info.
If you have questions on the webinar registration process, visit the “Upcoming
Agent and Broker Webinars” section of the Agents
and Brokers Resources webpage for more information.
50% ...
... of the 341 employers surveyed by the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute's 2016 Trends in Specialty Drug Benefits Report have formulary exclusions for growth hormones, followed by hepatitis C (47%), fertility (43%), cholesterol (37%) and multiple sclerosis (32%).
"I think CMS [in its 2017 Benefit and Payment Parameters rule for HealthCare.gov] ...
... is trying to
draw a distinction between network adequacy and narrow networks. And the two
are different concepts not in conflict with one another at all. Network
adequacy means that when I need a provider there is a provider available to me.
And some of the literature around network adequacy has related to how far I
have had to travel, whether there are all the specialists you would need
in-network and am I being forced out of network to get the care I need, the
personnel to serve me.... [The narrow network issue is one of choice.] It's not
whether any provider is available to me, it is do I have choice among providers
available to me."
— Deborah Chollet, Ph.D., fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, told AIS's Health Plan Week.
— Deborah Chollet, Ph.D., fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, told AIS's Health Plan Week.
$270 billion to $550 billion ...
... over 10 years would be the cost of Donald Trump's health care plan, which would cause 21 million people to lose coverage, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Monday, March 28, 2016
58% of Part D Covered Drugs Subject to Coinsurance
Avalere recently conducted an analysis on prescription drug coverage for Medicare Part D (PDPs) and Medicare Advantage (MA-PDs) plans. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
The percentage of
covered drugs facing coinsurance rose from 35% in 2014 to 58% today among PDPs.
·
24.6 million Medicare
beneficiaries are currently enrolled in PDPs.
·
96% of PDP members are
enrolled in plans with more than 1 tier requiring coinsurance, vs. 39% in 2014.
·
Medicare rules cap the
amount of coinsurance for specialty tiers at 33% of the cost of the product.
·
The maximum cap on
non-preferred brand tiers is 50%, while preferred brand tiers are capped at
25%.
·
Medicare Advantage
plans currently charge coinsurance for 26% of covered drugs.
Source: Avalere, March 10, 2016
"Retail clinics have been viewed by policy makers and insurers as a mechanism ...
... to decrease
health care spending, by substituting less expensive clinic visits for more
expensive emergency department or physician office visits. However, retail
clinics may actually increase spending if they drive new health care
utilization."
— According to researchers who conducted a study published in the March issue of Health Affairs.
— According to researchers who conducted a study published in the March issue of Health Affairs.
49% ...
... of Medicare Advantage contracts, representing 71% of plan enrollees, have achieved ratings of 4 stars or above, compared to an estimated 17% in 2009, according to CMS.
Total enrollment in Medicare Advantage and other prepaid plans increased ...
... by 28,572 to 18,232,317 as of the March 1 payment
date, compared with the Feb. 1 figures, reflecting enrollments in the 28-day
period ending Feb. 5 .
A report released on March 17 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ...
... said more than 600,000 public exchange members have
had their policies discontinued due to the closure of Consumer Operated and
Oriented Plans (CO-OPs). Last June, about 1 million individuals were enrolled
in coverage sold by CO-OPs, but that number has since tumbled to less than
400,000 because of the many CO-OP failures, according to the report. There are
now just 11 CO-OPs operating, down from the original 23. And Maine's Bureau of
Insurance told CMS in a letter on March 14 that its CO-OP, the Maine Community
Health Options carrier, is nearly insolvent. On March 21, CMS rejected a plan
to stabilize the CO-OP, which is Maine's largest writer of individual policies.
The GAO report is titled "Federal Oversight Premiums and Enrollment for
Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans in 2015" ....
According to a recent study, "cross-market mergers" ...
... of
hospitals gaining system members in the same state (but in different local
markets) had price increases of 6% to10% compared to control hospitals, while
hospitals gaining system members out-of-state had no statistically significant
changes in price.
Source: "The Price Effects of Cross-Market Hospital Mergers," Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, March 18, 2016, http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/docs/faculty/dafny/price-effects-of-cross-market-hospital-mergers.pdf
Source: "The Price Effects of Cross-Market Hospital Mergers," Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, March 18, 2016, http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/docs/faculty/dafny/price-effects-of-cross-market-hospital-mergers.pdf
Friday, March 25, 2016
According to a recent survey of Americans who report being currently covered by health insurance:
- 33%
say their coverage is excellent
- 40%
say their coverage is good.
- 20%
say their coverage is fair
- 5%
say their coverage is poor
Source: Patients' Perspectives on Healthcare in the United
States: A Look at Seven States and the Nation," NPR, Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, February 2016, http://www.npr.org/assets/img/2016/02/26/PatientPerspectives.pdf
Majority of Physicians Accepted Pharma Payments in 2014
ProPublica recently conducted an analysis on the relationship between physician prescribing practices and money received from pharmaceutical companies in 2014. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
Nearly 90% of
cardiologists received payments from a drug or device company in 2014.
·
7 in 10 internists and
family practitioners received payments from a drug or device company in 2014.
·
Nationally, about 3 in
4 doctors across five common specialties received at least one payment in 2014.
·
Nevada has the highest
proportion (90.3%) of doctors who received payments in 2014.
·
Internists who
received no payments had an average brand-name prescribing rate of about 20%.
·
Internists who
received more than $5,000/year prescribed brand-name drugs 30% of the time.
Source: NPR, March 17, 2016
According to a recent report, physician assistants in the U.S.
earn
a median annual salary of about $95,000, and recently certified physician
assistants carry a median educational debt of $112,500.
Source: "2014 Statistical Profile of Certified Physician Assistants by State: An Annual Report of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants," National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, Inc., January 2016, http://www.nccpa.net/Upload/PDFs/2014StatebyStateReport.pdf
Source: "2014 Statistical Profile of Certified Physician Assistants by State: An Annual Report of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants," National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, Inc., January 2016, http://www.nccpa.net/Upload/PDFs/2014StatebyStateReport.pdf
“Agent and Broker Roadmap to Resources”
Be sure to take a look at the “Agent
and Broker Roadmap to Resources” in the “Guidance” section of the Agents
and Brokers Resources webpage.
The Roadmap to Resources:
- Presents resources, such as checklists and
troubleshooting tips to make it easier and faster for you to help
consumers
- Serves as a quick reference guide for resources you may
find helpful as you navigate the Health Insurance Marketplace and assist
individuals and small businesses select, enroll in, and use coverage
- Explains coverage options available to consumers in the
Marketplace
“Assisting Consumers with Complex Situations” webinar on Wednesday, March 30 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern Time.
Don’t forget to register for the
“Assisting Consumers with Complex Situations” webinar on Wednesday, March 30
from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. Registration closes 24 hours before the
webinar.
CMS subject matter experts (SMEs)
will cover how you can help consumers manage commonly seen, but complex, health
coverage situations. The webinar will include:
- Determining
if a consumer’s household is a multi-tax household and, if so, how to
group family members for enrollment in qualified health plans (QHPs)
- Enrolling
family members for reasons of preference in different QHPs
- Applying
for, allocating, and reconciling advance payments of the premium tax
credit in these complex situations
- Making
decisions when consumers have eligibility options (i.e., QHP coverage
versus other coverage such as Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health
Insurance Program)
- Transitioning
from an QHP to other coverage.
In addition to presenting relevant policy and
step-by-step processes, SMEs will apply this guidance to a number of “real
life” scenarios, and take your questions via the webinar’s online chat feature.
The webinar will also offer links to resources on these topics that you can
access anytime.
To register for the webinar, please
log in to www.REGTAP.info.
If you have questions on the webinar registration process, visit the “Upcoming
Agent and Broker Webinars” section of the Agents
and Brokers Resources webpage for more information.
CMS Launches New Effort to Improve care for Nursing Facility Residents
CMS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2016
Contact: CMS Media Relations
(202) 690-6145 | CMS
Media Inquiries
CMS
Launches New Effort to Improve care for Nursing Facility Residents
New
payment model test for nursing facility care aims to reduce avoidable
hospitalizations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced it
will test whether a new payment model for nursing facilities and practitioners
will further reduce avoidable hospitalizations, lower combined Medicare and
Medicaid spending, and improve the quality of care received by nursing facility
residents.
This next phase of the Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations
among Nursing Facility Residents seeks to reduce avoidable hospitalizations
among beneficiaries eligible for Medicare and/or Medicaid by providing new
payments to practitioners for engagement in multidisciplinary care planning
activities. In addition, the participating skilled nursing facilities will
receive payment to provide additional treatment for common medical conditions
that often lead to avoidable hospitalizations.
Through this model, CMS would facilitate practitioner engagement when a
nursing facility resident needs higher-intensity interventions due to an acute
change in condition. Medicare currently pays physicians less for a
comprehensive assessment at a skilled nursing facility than for the same
assessment at a hospital. This model would equalize the payments between the sites
of care. Removing potential barriers to effective treatment within a facility
can improve the residents’ care experience and mitigate the need for disruptive
and costly hospitalizations. For example, participating skilled nursing
facilities will be expected to enhance their staff training and purchase new
equipment to improve their capacity to provide intravenous therapy and cardiac
monitoring.
“This Initiative has the potential to improve the care for the most frail,
most vulnerable Medicare-Medicaid enrollees—long-stay residents of nursing
facilities,” said Tim Engelhardt, Director of the Medicare-Medicaid
Coordination Office. “Smarter spending can improve the quality of on-site care
in nursing facilities and the assessment and management of conditions that too
often now lead to unnecessary and costly hospitalizations.”
Since 2012, CMS has funded Enhanced Care and Coordination Providers
(ECCPs) to test a model to improve care for long-stay nursing facility
residents through clinical and educational interventions. The ECCPs currently
collaborate with 143 long-term care facilities to provide on-site staff for
training and preventive services and to improve the assessment and management
of medical conditions. Early results from the first phase of the Initiative are
promising, according to an independent
evaluation. All seven sites generally showed a decline in all-cause
hospitalizations and potentially avoidable hospitalizations, with four sites
showing statistically significant reductions in at least one of the
hospitalization measures. In addition, all sites generally showed reductions in
Medicare expenditures relative to a comparison group in 2014, with
statistically significant declines in total Medicare expenditures at two sites.
This first phase of the Initiative will continue through 2016.
This new four-year payment phase of
the Initiative, slated to begin fall 2016, will be implemented through
cooperative agreements with six ECCPs. The six awardees are:
- Alabama Quality Assurance Foundation – Alabama
- HealthInsight of Nevada – Nevada and Colorado
- Indiana University – Indiana
- The Curators of the University of Missouri –
Missouri
- The Greater New York Hospital Foundation, Inc. –
New York
- UPMC Community Provider Services – Pennsylvania
The new model will be subject to a rigorous independent evaluation to
determine the effects on cost and quality of care. ECCP awardees will implement
the payment model with both their existing partner facilities, where they
provide training and clinical interventions, and in a comparable number of
additional facilities to be recruited over the next several months.
The Initiative is a collaboration of the CMS Medicare-Medicaid
Coordination Office and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, both
created by the Affordable Care Act to test payment models to improve health
care quality and reduce costs in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The
Initiative complements broader administration efforts to improve long-term care
facilities, including proposed updates to the conditions of participation for
nursing homes, improvements to the five-star rating system for consumers, and
implementation of the new Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program
that ties skilled nursing facility payment to the reporting of quality
measures.
For more information on this Initiative,
including both current activities and this new phase, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare-Medicaid-Coordination/Medicare-and-Medicaid-Coordination/Medicare-Medicaid-Coordination-Office/InitiativetoReduceAvoidableHospitalizations/AvoidableHospitalizationsamongNursingFacilityResidents.html
Marketplace 101 Webinar
Join
us for the CMS National Training Program
Marketplace
101 Webinar
April
7, 2016
1:00
– 2:30 pm ET
This webinar provides a high-level
overview of the Affordable Care Act and the Health Insurance Marketplace,
including information on coverage, tax credits, and fees.
3 ...
... Medicare Advantage
prescription drug plans (Ultimate Health Plans, Inc., Health Net, Inc. and
Tenet Healthcare Corp.) were penalized by CMS for failing to comply with
federal regulations, several of them related to Part D.
"I would say [to price-raising pharma industry execs] go to ...
... your
spiritual advisor, go to your pastor, go to your rabbi, go to wherever you go
to and ask them, 'Is this the right thing to do?' And if that's not good
enough, go to your mother. I can tell you my little 4'11" Italian mother
would have looked at me and said, 'Johnny, you're a bad boy.'"
— John Bennett, M.D., CEO of Capital District Physicians' Health Plan, told the audience at the March 9 AHIP Nationa
— John Bennett, M.D., CEO of Capital District Physicians' Health Plan, told the audience at the March 9 AHIP Nationa
$50 million ...
... will be spent by CVS Health
Corp. over five years on an initiative — "Be the First" — to help
drive the first tobacco-free generation in the U.S.
"There are more avenues of [cyber]attack against a hospital ...
... than
probably any other organization because everything is connected — your
pharmacy, your patient records, your thermostat. When you hack a hospital, you
can really hurt people, and that's why hospitals need to take this stuff
seriously if they aren't already."
— Mark Lanterman, chief technology officer for Computer Forensic Services in Minnetonka, Minn., told AIS's Report on Medicare Compliance.
— Mark Lanterman, chief technology officer for Computer Forensic Services in Minnetonka, Minn., told AIS's Report on Medicare Compliance.
350 ...
... types of Medicare billing
are now being reviewed by recovery audit contractors, down from 800 areas that
were approved for RAC review when the program was "working at full
capacity," according to the Council for Medicare Integrity.
According to a recent study comparing the use of prescription and over-the-counter medications ....
... by older
adults ages 62 to 85 in 2005-2006 to their use in 2010-2011:
Source: "Changes in Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medication and Dietary Supplement Use Among Older Adults in the United States, 2005 vs 2011," JAMA Internal Medicine, abstract only, March 21, 2016, http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2500064
- 84.1%
of older adults used at least 1 prescription medication in 2005-2006
compared to 87.7% in 2010-2011
- Concurrent
use of at least 5 prescription medications rose from 30.6% in 2005-2006 to
35.8% in 2010-2011
- Use
of over-the-counter medications fell from 44.4% to 37.9%
- Use
of dietary supplements rose from 51.8% to 63.7%
- About
15.1% of older adults were at risk for a potential major drug-drug
interaction in 2010-2011, compared with about 8.4% at risk in 2005-2006
Source: "Changes in Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medication and Dietary Supplement Use Among Older Adults in the United States, 2005 vs 2011," JAMA Internal Medicine, abstract only, March 21, 2016, http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2500064
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
25% of Consumers Have Used a Retail Clinic
Oliver Wyman recently conducted a survey on consumer experiences with alternative care sites like retail health clinics and telehealth. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
70% of consumers are
familiar with the concept of a health and wellness clinic within a retail store.
·
One-quarter of
consumers have used a retail clinic, an increase of 11 percentage points from
2013.
·
78% said their retail
clinic experience was the same or better than a traditional office visit.
·
3 in 10 said their
retail clinic experience was better or much better than a traditional office
visit.
·
17% of consumers say
they would never use a retail clinic for any reason.
·
57% of consumers are
now familiar with the concept of a remote health visit conducted via
phone/video.
Source: Oliver Wyman, March 16, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
According to a recent survey, 40% of consumers ...
... who
use health apps have discussed or shared mobile app data with their doctor in
the past year.
Source: "Consumers’ Use of Health Apps and Wearables Doubled in Past Two Years, Accenture Survey Finds," Accenture Press Release, March 3, 2016, https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/consumers-use-of-health-apps-and-wearables-doubled-in-past-two-years-accenture-survey-finds.htm
Source: "Consumers’ Use of Health Apps and Wearables Doubled in Past Two Years, Accenture Survey Finds," Accenture Press Release, March 3, 2016, https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/consumers-use-of-health-apps-and-wearables-doubled-in-past-two-years-accenture-survey-finds.htm
Most Americans Have a Positive Reaction to "Medicare-for-all"
The Kaiser Family Foundation recently conducted a survey on the public's view of the national health care system and where it's headed. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
36% say lawmakers
should build on the Affordable Care Act to improve affordability and access to
care.
·
1 in 4 would prefer
guaranteed coverage through a single government plan.
·
60% of Republicans
favor repealing the ACA.
·
Most Democrats (54%)
support building on the ACA, while a third favor a single government plan.
·
Two thirds (64%) of
Americans say they have a positive reaction to the term
"Medicare-for-all."
·
38% say they have a
positive reation to the term "socialized medicine."
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, February 25, 2016
33% of Consumers Use Mobile Health Apps
Accenture recently released results of a survey on health app and wearable utilization. Here are some key findings from the report:
·
The number of consumers
who use mobile health apps increased from 16% in 2014 to 33% today.
·
In the past year the
number of consumers who use health wearables increased from 9% to 21%.
·
1 in 5 consumers were
asked by a doctor to use wearables to track their health.
·
40% who use health
apps have discussed or shared mobile app data with their doctor in the past
year.
·
Consumers most
frequently use health apps for fitness (cited by 59%) and diet/nutrition (52%).
·
29% of consumers said
they prefer virtual doctor appointments to face-to-face appointments.
Source: Accenture, March 3, 2016
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