Years after promises of large gains from health information technology, evidence of the impact of health IT on efficiency and safety remain mixed, Arthur Kellermann and Spencer Jones report in the most-read Health Affairs article of 2013. Achieving health IT’s original promise will require standardized systems that are easier to use and more interoperable, and that provide patients with more control over their health information; providers must re-engineer care systems as well, Kellermann and Jones write. To celebrate the New Year, Health Affairs is making this piece and all the articles on the journal’s 2013 most-read list freely available to all readers for one week.
Second on the 2013 top-fifteen list is a report on 2011 health spending by analysts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary. Every year, Health Affairs publishes a retrospective analysis of National Health Expenditures by the CMS analysts, as well as their health spending projections for the coming decade. In the latest installment in this series, the analysts reported on 2012 health spending in our January 2014 issue and discussed their findings at a Washington DC briefing.
In the third most-read Health Affairs article of 2013, Linda Green and coauthors caution against projecting primary care physician shortages based on simple patient-physician ratios. They argue that increasingly popular strategies — such as the use of teams and nonphysicians, and better information technology and data-sharing — can potentially eliminate projected physician shortages.
The top fifteen articles for 2013 also include studies addressing the impact of states’ opting out of Medicaid expansion, the cost-shifting effects of some workplace wellness programs, and several other topics. The full list appears below. The list is based on online viewing statistics and covers all articles published in 2013.
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- “What It Will Take To Achieve The As-Yet-Unfulfilled Promises Of Health Information Technology”
by Arthur L. Kellermann and Spencer S. Jones; January 2013 issue - “National Health Spending In 2011: Overall Growth Remains Low, But Some Payers And Services Show Signs Of Acceleration”
by Micah Hartman, Anne B. Martin, Joseph Benson, Aaron Catlin, and the National Health Expenditure Accounts Team; January 2013 issue - “Primary Care Physician Shortages Could Be Eliminated Through Use Of Teams, Nonphysicians, And Electronic Communication”
by Linda V. Green, Sergei Savin, and Yina Lu; January 2013 issue - “For States That Opt Out Of Medicaid Expansion: 3.6 Million Fewer Insured And $8.4 Billion Less In Federal Payments”
by Carter C. Price and Christine Eibner; June 2013 issue - “Wellness Incentives In The Workplace: Cost Savings Through Cost Shifting To Unhealthy Workers”
by Jill R. Horwitz, Brenna D. Kelly, and John E. DiNardo; March 2013 issue - “Even As Mortality Fell In Most US Counties, Female Mortality Nonetheless Rose In 42.8 Percent Of Counties From 1992 To 2006”
by David A. Kindig and Erika R. Cheng; March 2013 issue - “Hospitals With Higher Nurse Staffing Had Lower Odds Of Readmissions Penalties Than Hospitals With Lower Staffing”
by Matthew D. McHugh, Julie Berez, and Dylan S. Small; October 2013 issue - “Health Care Cost Containment Strategies Used In Four Other High-Income Countries Hold Lessons For The United States”
by Mark Stabile, Sarah Thomson, Sara Allin, Seán Boyle, Reinhard Busse, Karine Chevreul, Greg Marchildon, and Elias Mossialos; April 2013 issue - “The Slowdown In Health Care Spending In 2009–11 Reflected Factors Other Than The Weak Economy And Thus May Persist”
by Alexander J. Ryu, Teresa B. Gibson, M. Richard McKellar, and Michael E. Chernew; May 2013 issue - “Ten Strategies To Lower Costs, Improve Quality, And Engage Patients: The View From Leading Health System CEOs”
by Delos M. Cosgrove, Michael Fisher, Patricia Gabow, Gary Gottlieb, George C. Halvorson, Brent C. James, Gary S. Kaplan, Jonathan B. Perlin, Robert Petzel, Glenn D. Steele, and John S. Toussaint; February 2013 issue - “Cesarean Delivery Rates Vary Tenfold Among US Hospitals; Reducing Variation May Address Quality And Cost Issues”
by Katy Backes Kozhimannil, Michael R. Law, and Beth A. Virnig; March 2013 issue - “If Slow Rate Of Health Care Spending Growth Persists, Projections May Be Off By $770 Billion”
by David M. Cutler and Nikhil R. Sahni; May 2013 issue - “An Increase In The Number Of Nurses With Baccalaureate Degrees Is Linked To Lower Rates Of Postsurgery Mortality”
by Ann Kutney-Lee, Douglas M. Sloane, and Linda H. Aiken; March 2013 issue - “Patients With Lower Activation Associated With Higher Costs; Delivery Systems Should Know Their Patients’ ‘Scores”
by Judith H. Hibbard, Jessica Greene, and Valerie Overton; February 2013 issue - “Focus Groups Highlight That Many Patients Object To Clinicians’ Focusing On Costs”
by Roseanna Sommers, Susan Dorr Goold, Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Steven D. Pearson, and Marion Danis; February 2013 issue
February 25th, 2016 at 10:56 am