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BACKGROUND: Cancer projections to the current year help in policy development, planning of programs and allocation of resources. We sought to provide an overview of the expected incidence and mortality of cancer in Canada in 2020 in follow-up to the Canadian Cancer Statistics 2019 report. METHODS: We obtained incidence data from the National Cancer Incidence Reporting System (1984-1991) and Canadian Cancer Registry (1992-2015). Mortality data (1984-2015) were obtained from the Canadian Vital Statistics --Death Database. All databases are maintained by Statistics Canada. Cancer incidence and mortality counts and age-standardized rates were projected to 2020 for 23 cancer types by sex and geographic region (provinces and territories) for all ages combined. RESULTS: An estimated 225 800 new cancer cases and 83 300 cancer deaths are expected in Canada in 2020. The most commonly diagnosed cancers are expected to be lung overall (29 800), breast in females (27 400) and prostate in males (23 300). Lung cancer is also expected to be the leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 25.5% of all cancer deaths, followed by colorectal (11.6%), pancreatic (6.4%) and breast (6.1%) cancers. Incidence and mortality rates will be generally higher in the eastern provinces than in the western provinces. INTERPRETATION: The number of cancer cases and deaths remains high in Canada and, owing to the growing and aging population, is expected to continue to increase. Although progress has been made in reducing deaths for most major cancers (breast, prostate and lung), there has been limited progress for pancreatic cancer, which is expected to be the third leading cause of cancer death in Canada in 2020. Additional efforts to improve uptake of existing programs, as well as to advance research, prevention, screening and treatment, are needed to address the cancer burden in Canada., Cancer poses a large and growing impact on the Canadian population and health care system. Nearly half of Canadians are expected to receive a diagnosis of cancer in their lifetime [...]

Sponsored by Change Healthcare It's no secret that the rise in high deductible health plans and the increasing amount of self-pay have impacted healthcare organizations' bottom lines. But, is it [...]

Inefficiencies in the health care setting are coming into sharp focus today as attention turns to decreasing waste and increasing patient safety. The operating room is a prime location for implementing Lean processes to that end. A timed delivery Kanban card system can lead to a more-efficient use of time, staff and materials in a hospital operating room as nurses spend more time with patient care and less time ordering materials., AS HEALTH CARE COSTS CONTINUE TO RISE and reimbursements decline, the focus on health care efficiency is increasing, (1) including the use of Lean management principles. (2-4) These principles initially [...]

Balance billing Increasingly is putting a strain on patients. What can physician leaders do about this phenomenon? So far, few physicians have any answers--so lawmakers are using their powers., THE SURPRISE MEDICAL BILL- or balance billing, in which a patient is billed for amounts not covered by insurance--has become part of health care in the United States, whether it's [...]

Basic staffing and scheduling methods of the past are not meeting the complex demands of the nurse scheduling problem (NSP). The overall goal of this study was to develop and implement a nurse scheduling forecasting model for a 33bed inpatient nursing unit to address the challenges of the NSP during the schedule creation phase. Results revealed the nurse scheduling forecasting model improved schedule accuracy and aligned nurse needs to vary by day of the week., The staggering cost of health care in the United States is at an all-time high. Healthcare expenditures are 17% of the gross domestic product (GDP), with a forecasted GDP increase [...]

Hospitals and health systems are constantly looking for ways to reduce readmissions while also directly lowering costs and improving care. Long Island Health Network, a seven-hospital system in New York, [...]

Obtaining an accurate perspective on the meaning and relative impacts of cost and payment increases in the healthcare industry depends on the specific metrics that provide the basis for the [...]

The accelerated trend toward high-deductible health plans and cost-shifting to patients has brought with it the need for healthcare provider organizations to implement a more versatile financial assistance policy. As [...]

Rising operational complexity and physician burnout are well-documented challenges in health care. An increasing administrative burden, evolving consumer demands, and ongoing IT initiatives are putting considerable strain on small and [...]

Engage patients as consumers and finding ways to make it easier for them to pay for their health care are two critically important objectives in today's increasingly consumer-focused U.S. healthcare [...]

Sponsored by Virence HealthThe proliferation of high-deductible health plans, along with today's rising healthcare costs, is prompting patients to demand more information from providers about their care costs and financial [...]

As health care costs continue to soar, and legislation and compliance grow increasingly complex, more self-insured health plans are conducting comprehensive health care claims audits to safeguard their plans. Here's [...]

CHRONIC WOUNDS are an increasing burden on the health budget. An ageing population, growing rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and increasingly sophisticated wound therapies are creating a surge in [...]

When the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) created Bundled Payments for Care Improvements (BPCI), the benefits of participation were fairly straightforward. The program provided competitive and strategic advantages [...]

Hospital leaders face a common challenge in managing claim denials based on problems with treatment authorizations, which often occur when there has been a deviation in the plan of care. [...]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prescription drugs represent the fastest growing and the third-largest cost center in health care, accounting for about $325 billion in [...]

Chronic care management has become an all-consuming topic for retail pharmacy. It has moved beyond a niche industry topic to a high-profile, national conversation that involves healthcare costs, government policy, [...]

Objective. Did mental health cost-sharing decrease following implementation of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA)? Data Source. Specialty mental health copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles, 2008-2013, were obtained from benefits databases for 'carve-in' plans from a national commercial managed behavioral health organization. Study Design. Bivariate and regression-adjusted analyses compare the probability of use and (conditional) level of cost-sharing pre- and postparity. An interaction term is added to compare differential levels of pre- and postparity cost-sharing changes for plans that were and were not already at parity pre-MHPAEA. Findings. Controlling for employer/plan characteristics, MHPAEA is associated with higher intermediate care copayments ($15.9) but lower outpatient ($2.6) copayments among in-network-only plans. Among plans with in- and out-of-network benefits, MHPAEA is associated with lower inpatient ($23.2) and outpatient ($2.5) copayments, but increases in inpatient and intermediate in-network and out-of-network coinsurance (about 1 percentage point). Among the few plans not at parity pre-MHPAEA, changes in use and level of cost-sharing associated with MHPAEA were more dramatic. Conclusion. Mixed evidence that MHPAEA led to more generous mental health benefits may stem from the finding that many plans were already at parity pre-MHPAEA. Future policy focus in mental health may shift to slowing growth in cost-sharing for all health services. Key Words. Mental health, commercial insurance, parity, Historical inequities in generosity between medical and behavioral health (BH) insurance coverage are well documented (Hodgkin et al. 2003; Zuvekas and Meyerhoefer 2006). In 2008, the 110th Congress passed the [...]

Objective. To develop an automated, data-driven, and scale-flexible method to delineate hospital service areas (HSAs) and hospital referral regions (HRRs) that are up-to-date, representative of all patients, and have the optimal localization of hospital visits. Data Sources. The 2011 state inpatient database in Florida from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Study Design. A network optimization method was used to redefine HSAs and HRRs by maximizing patient-to-hospital flows within each HSA/HRR while minimizing flows between them. We first constructed as many HSAs/HRRs as existing Dartmouth units in Florida, and then compared the two by various metrics. Next, we sought to derive the optimal numbers and configurations of HSAs/HRRs that best reflect the modularity of hospitalization patterns in Florida. Principal Findings. The HSAs/HRRs by our method are favored over the Dartmouth units in balance of region size and market structure, shape, and most important, local hospitalization. Conclusions. The new method is automated, scale-flexible, and effective in capturing the natural structure of the health care system. It has great potential for applications in delineating other health care service areas or in larger geographic regions. Key Words. Hospital service area, hospital referral region, HCUP, community detection method, Dartmouth method, A reliable geographic unit is critical to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers involved in health care economics and policy, health services, and population health research (Kilaru et al. 2015). Such [...]

Objective. To provide guidance on selecting the most appropriate price index for adjusting health expenditures or costs for inflation. Data Sources. Major price index series produced by federal statistical agencies. Study Design. We compare the key characteristics of each index and develop suggestions on specific indexes to use in many common situations and general guidance in others. Data Collection/Extraction Methods. Price series and methodological documentation were downloaded from federal websites and supplemented with literature scans. Principal Findings. The gross domestic product implicit price deflator or the overall Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index is preferable to the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) to adjust for general inflation, in most cases. The Personal Health Care (PHC) index or the PCE health-by-function index is generally preferred to adjust total medical expenditures for inflation. The CPI medical care index is preferred for the adjustment of consumer out-of-pocket expenditures for inflation. [LAMBDA] new, experimental disease-specific Medical Care Expenditure Index is now available to adjust payments for disease treatment episodes. Conclusions. There is no single gold standard for adjusting health expenditures for inflation. Our discussion of best practices can help researchers select the index best suited to their study. Key Words. Health care costs, expenditures, health care prices, inflation, cost-of-illness, cost-effectiveness, Comparing health expenditures across years generally requires adjusting for inflation to dollars of equivalent purchasing power. However, researchers confront an array of available price indexes. Selecting the right index is [...]

The NHS is at a tipping point. Longer but not healthier lives, rising hospital admissions, expensive new treatments and underfunding--is it over for the service as we have known it? [...]

The proposed rule for Medicare inpatient payments could strongly affect uncompensated care payment and wage adjustments. The Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) proposed rule for FY20, issued April 23 by [...]

Even though healthcare organizations have more refined data today than ever before, many organizations' key healthcare financial forecasts--particularly where new ventures or integrated activities are involved--have often been far off [...]

Objectives. To investigate whether tax-exempt hospitals' investments in community health are associated with patterns of governmental public health spending focusing specifically on the relationship between hospitals' community benefit expenditures and the spending patterns of local health departments (LHDs). Study Design. We combined data on tax-exempt hospitals' community benefit spending with data on spending by the corresponding LHD that served the county in which a hospital was located. Data were available for 2 years, 2009 and 2013. Generalized linear regressions were estimated with indicators of hospital community benefit spending as the dependent variable and LHD spending as the key independent variable. Principal Findings. Hospital community benefit spending was unrelated to how much local public health agencies spent, per capita, on public health in their communities. Conclusions. Patterns of local public health spending do not appear to impact the investments of tax-exempt hospitals in community health activities. Opportunities may, however, exist for a more active engagement between the public and private sector to ensure mat the expenditures of all stakeholders involved in community health improvement efforts complement one another. Key Words. Tax-exempt hospitals, community benefit, local health departments, governmental public health spending, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the sweeping health reform legislation enacted in 2010, includes a number of provisions that embrace population health principles. For example, the ACA [...]

The authors explore the metrics to improve hospital inpatient length of stay and correlate them with observed lengths of stay. Their findings indicate that the leading metrics might not improve stay lengths, but they likely help in the movement of patients from the emergency department into standard beds., AS HOSPITALS--AND HEALTH CARE OVERALL --continue moving toward value-based care, one area of opportunity to improve access and costs is reducing inpatient length of stay. Not only does this make [...]

Persistent increases in healthcare costs make now an opportune time to consider how an emergency department charges for its visits. The charges (and underlying costs) for visits to a hospital's [...]

With the advent of value-based care and the concomitant rise of consumerism in health care, medical practices face an increasingly challenging business environment, as do the health systems that own [...]

Healthcare leaders have long been accustomed to seeing the role of supply chain management as focused simply on managing the purchase and delivery of medical-surgical and pharmaceutical supplies. Under this [...]

Patient engagement coupled with innovative payment models could help reduce the 21 percent of waste associated with overtreatment. Efforts to 'bend the cost curve' are rightly targeted at the 5 [...]

BACKGROUND: Managing expenditures on pharmaceuticals is important for health systems to sustain universal access to necessary medicines. We sought to estimate the size and sources of differences in expenditures on primary care medications among high-income countries with universal health care systems. METHODS: We compared data on the 2015 volume and cost per day of primary care prescription drug therapies purchased in 10 high-income countries with various systems of universal health care coverage (7 from Europe, in addition to Australia, Canada and New Zealand). We measured total per capita expenditure on 6 categories of primary care prescription drugs: hypertension treatments, pain medications, lipid-lowering medicines, noninsulin diabetes treatments, gastrointestinal preparations and antidepressants. We quantified the contributions of 5 drivers of the observed differences in per capita expenditures. RESULTS: Across countries, the average annual per capita expenditure on the primary care medicines studied varied by more than 600%: from $23 in New Zealand to $171 in Switzerland. The volume of therapies purchased varied by 41%: from 198 days per capita in Norway to 279 days per capita in Germany. Most of the differences in average expenditures per capita were driven by a combination of differences in the average mix of drugs selected within therapeutic categories and differences in the prices paid for medicines prescribed. INTERPRETATION: Significant international differences in average expenditures on primary care medications are driven primarily by factors that contribute to the average daily cost of therapy, rather than differences in the volume of therapy used. Average expenditures were lower among single-payer financing systems that appeared to promote lower prices and the selection of lower-cost treatment options., As a result of increased availability, use and cost of prescription drugs, maintaining the affordability of medicines has been a challenge worldwide. Among the 20 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and [...]

As Organizations Grow Larger and More Complex, Ensuring Compliance is a Shared Value Can Be Daunting, but Totally Achievable 'Compliance is Everyone's Responsibility' is a common assertion of many compliance [...]

Although there is considerable uncertainty regarding the future of health care legislation and its effect on the health care industry, one thing remains highly likely: Providers can expect to see [...]

At the end of March, the finance minister, Bwalya Ng'andu, issued a statement on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Zambian economy. The minister cut the government's projected [...]

The 'Nutraceutical Products - Global Market Outlook (2018-2027)' report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Nutraceutical Products market accounted for $249.54 billion in 2018 and is expected to [...]

Byline: Tara Bannow It's not easy being a hospital in Texas, the state with the unwelcome distinction of having the most hospital closures and highest percentage of uninsured residents. The [...]

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the 'Medical Device Connectivity Market Report: Trends, Forecast and Competitive Analysis' report to its offerings. In a release, Research and Markets noted [...]

Jose Altera, a logistics specialist at Indiana University Health, stepped up to the control panel at the hospital system's new warehouse and distribution center in Plainfield and began punching buttons. [...]

Providing substance abuse treatment and services--particularly for plan members and beneficiaries who were addicted to opioids--had become a complicated and expensive problem for a multiemployer health fund in the Northeast. [...]