Liver transplant center variability in accepting organ offers and its impact on patient survival
David Goldberg, Benjamin French, James Lewis, Frank Scott, Ronac Mamtani, Richard Gilroy, Scott Halpern, Peter Abt
In the Journal of Hepatology, David Goldberg and colleagues, including Benjamin French, James Lewis and Scott Halpern, explore whether transplant centers vary in their propensities to decline organs for the highest priority patients, and how these decisions impact patient outcomes. The authors analyzed Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) data from 2007-2013, and evaluated acceptance rates of liver offers for the highest ranked patients and their subsequent waitlist mortality. Even after adjusting for organ quality and recipient severity of illnesses, the study...
Said Ibrahim Named to NIMHD Advisory Council
Health Equity Symposium Features Fiery Carmona
[content_elements:element:0]Penn’s Second Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Health Equity Symposium drew attention to the importance of inclusion and diversity in medical education and research on both a national and local level. A panel of Penn faculty, including several LDI Senior Fellows, directly confronted the barriers to inclusion at Penn, and Dr.
The Impact of Hospital Closures and Hospital and Population Characteristics on Increasing Emergency Department Volume: A Geographic Analysis
David Lee, Brendan Carr, Tony Smith, Van Tran, Daniel Polsky, Charles Branas
In Population Health Management, David Lee and colleagues, including Brendan Carr, Daniel Polsky and Charles Branas, test the association of hospital and population characteristics and the effect of nearby hospital closures with increases in emergency department volume. The researchers used data from cost reports and administrative databases to analyze emergency department volume at 192 New York State hospitals from 2004 to 2010. They find an overall increase in emergency department visits, but with wide variation. Emergency volume increased nearly twice as fast at tertiary...
Inpatient Hospital Charge Variability of U.S. Hospitals
James Park, Edward Kim, Rachel Werner
In the Journal of General Internal Medicine, James Park and colleagues, including Rachel Werner, describe hospital charge variability in the U.S. and examine its relationship to local health factors. The researchers evaluated 2011 Medicare Inpatient Charge data against 29 county-level measures of health, environmental and socioeconomic status. The authors find no association between any community health measures and hospital charges. However, higher charges were associated with higher rates of uninsured status. The authors conclude that overall, hospital charges lack an...
Psoriasis in the US Medicare Population: Prevalence, Treatment, and Factors Associated with Biologic Use
Junko Takeshita, Joel Gelfand, Penxiang Li, Lionel Pinto, Xinyan Yu, Preethi Rao, Hema Viswanathan, Jalpa Doshi
In the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Junko Takeshita and colleagues, including Preethi Rao and Jalpa Doshi, look at factors associated with the use of biologics and other treatments for psoriasis. They analyzed claims from a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries with Part D drug coverage. The researchers find that Medicare Part D beneficiaries without a low-income subsidy (LIS) had 70% lower odds of having received biologics than those with LIS. Similarly, the odds of having received biologics were 69% lower among black patients compared with white...
Diversity in the Health Professions: a 'Leaky Pipeline'
Despite decades of calls for increased representation of minorities in the health professions workforce, we are very far away from a workforce that reflects this nation’s diversity. Underrepresented minorities make up 31% of the general population, but just 15% of medical school students and 13% of dental students. A new study helps us understand the barriers minority college students face in pursuing medical and dental careers.
Hospice Care in Assisted Living Facilities Versus at Home: Results of a Multisite Cohort Study
Meredith Dougherty, Pamela Harris, Joan Teno, Amy Corcoran, Cindy Douglas, Jackie Nelson, Deborah Way, Joan Harrold, David Casarett
In the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Meredith Dougherty and colleagues, including David Casarett, compare residents of assisted living facilities receiving hospice with people receiving hospice care at home. The researchers conducted an electronic health record-based retrospective cohort study to compare the difference in the two groups’ length of stay in hospice, use of opioids for pain, and site of death. The authors find the assisted living population was more likely than the home hospice population to have a diagnosis of dementia (23.5% vs 4.7%) and enroll in...
The Role of Dementia in Nursing Home Report Cards
R. Tamara Konetzka, Daniel Brauner, Marcelo Coca Perraillon, Rachel Werner
In Medical Care Research and Review, R. Tamara Konetzka and colleagues, including Rachel Werner, explore the intended and unintended effects of quality reporting for nursing home residents with severe dementia relative to other residents. Selected quality measures are examined using a difference-in-difference design. The authors find that before public reporting, nursing home residents with severe dementia scored worse on most reported quality measures, such as physical restraint use and worsening of activities of daily living. After public reporting was launched (Nursing Home...
The Institutional Effects of Incarceration: Spillovers From Criminal Justice to Health Care
Jason Schnittker, Christopher Uggen, Sarah Shannon, Suzy McElrath
In The Milbank Quarterly, Jason Schnittker and colleagues examine the spillover effects of growth in state-level incarceration rates on the US health care system, prior to the Affordable Care Act. The authors merged cross-sectional individual-level data on health care behavior to aggregate state-level data regarding incarceration, and then analyzed trends over time in health care access and utilization. They find that individuals residing in states with a larger number of former prison inmates have diminished access to care, less access to specialists, less trust in physicians,...
Racial Differences in Clinical Treatment and Self‐Care Behaviors of Adults With Chronic Heart Failure
Victoria Dickson, George Knafl, Joyce Wald, Barbara Riegel
In the Journal of the American Heart Association, Victoria Vaughan Dickson and colleagues, including Barbara Riegel, examine racial differences in demographic and clinical characteristics in blacks and whites with heart failure to determine if these characteristics influenced treatment or self-care behaviors. The authors analyzed data on adults with chronic heart failure who visited outpatient sites in the northeastern United States and were followed for 6 months. After adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, they find two significant racial differences in...
The Unfinished Work of the Affordable Care Act
December 12, 2015 is Universal Health Coverage Day
Advancing LGBTQ Health – Hot topics on the national stage
Although Section 1557 of the ACA may not be well known to the public, it took center stage at the recent Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) annual conference in Portland, Oregon. The conference educates practitioners and students about the unique health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LBGTQ) individuals and families, and reports on the latest research on LGBTQ health. Here are some of the latest research and policy developments emerging from the conference.
Section 1557 of the ACA
Quality of Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care for Children in Low-Income Families
Amanda Kreider, Benjamin French, Jaya Aysola, Brendan Saloner, Kathleen Noonan, David Rubin
In JAMA Pediatrics, Amanda Kreider and colleagues, including Benjamin French, Jaya Aysola, Brendan Saloner, Kathleen Noonan and David Rubin, compare health care access, quality and cost outcomes by insurance type for children in low or moderate income households. Using family-reported measures from the National Surveys of Children’s Health, the authors examined children’s access to preventive and specialty care and caregiver satisfaction with insurance coverage, and also characterized unmet health needs and out-of-pocket costs over the last decade. The analysis revealed that...
The Growing Importance of Public Insurance to Children in a Shifting Commercial Landscape
[This blog originally appeared on the PolicyLab at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia blog.