Kaiser Health News: Costly Heart Procedures Thrive In Some Places, Michigan Study Finds
Report on CHRT’s April 2012 issue brief “Variation in Interventional Cardiac Care in Michigan.”
Read more >The Washington Post: Study: More heart surgery centers mean more unnecessary heart surgery
Report on CHRT’s April 2012 issue brief “Variation in Interventional Cardiac Care in Michigan.”
Read more >Regional variation in rates of cardiac procedures on the rise in Michigan
Regional differences in rates of cardiac procedures have increased in Michigan over the past decade—not fully explained by differences in health risk factors, heart attack or cardiac mortality rates—according to a report released today by the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT). The report compares the state’s hospital referral regions (HRRs) using claims data from Blue Cross Blue Shield …
Read more >Lansing State Journal: Lansing area sees fewer cardiac procedures
Report on CHRT’s April 2012 issue brief “Variation in Interventional Cardiac Care in Michigan.” (No longer available online)
Read more >Cardiac Care – A Case Study in Practice Variation
In 2010, when we published our study on healthcare variation in Michigan, we were able to show considerable geographic variation around the state of Michigan on a variety of procedures and services. We intentionally chose services where the research indicated either a tendency toward over-utilization (relative to evidence-based guidelines) or where the guidelines were unclear. While we adjusted for age, …
Read more >One Courageous Woman
Everyone should read this article in Health Affairs. It is the moving story of a woman diagnosed with terminal breast cancer who chose palliative treatment over interventionist strategies. Amy Berman is one knowledgeable and connected patient. She is a nurse, works for a health foundation in New York, and is a long time policy leader in health care. She received a terrible …
Read more >Can we speak the same language?
On April 13, 2012, CHRT is sponsoring a symposium geared to health policy-makers, funders and researchers, to ask this question: can individuals from these three worlds do a better job of working together? I come from the health policy world at the state level, and more recently have a toe in the academic world, so I’ve had the chance to …
Read more >The New York Times: Equitable Health Care: Sunday Dialogue
CHRT director Marianne Udow-Phillips’ responds to Alan B. Cohen’s commentary in the New York Times “Sunday Dialog.”
Read more >After SCOTUS: The Status Quo is Not an Option
Everybody and their brother will be blogging about the Supreme Court arguments on health care reform over the next several weeks. I do not want to add to the noise by focusing on the arguments and/or who has the winning position: many others will offer that kind of analysis. Instead, I want to focus on what will happen if the …
Read more >Who Can Tell the Public the Truth About Health Care Costs?
The Feb. 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine had an excellent commentary by Peter Newman about how difficult it is to talk to the public about health care costs. He captures the issue well: “The problem is that no one in charge seems willing to acknowledge that getting a handle on cost growth will also involve uncomfortable …
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