Health Services Research articles from June 2004

Health Services Research archives from June 2004

AHRQ's FY 2005 budget request: new mission, new vision.(AHRQ Update)(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
June 1, 2004... "What we really want to get at is not how many reports have been done, but how many people's lives are being bettered by what has been accomplished. In other words, is it being used, is it being followed, is it actually being given to patients?...

From the editors: recognizing excellence and translating Health Services Research to policy.(Editorial)(John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year)(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... HSR is pleased to announce two new features appearing in Volume 39 which are designed to promote the translation between policy and research and to recognize exemplary examples. We have established the John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year in...

Health policy roundtable panel discussion: translating health insurance studies into policy proposals.(Policy Reports)
June 1, 2004... A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTICIPANTS Chair: Sherry Glied, Ph.D., is professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Glied conducts research on health...

Working conditions of the nursing workforce excerpts from a policy roundtable at AcademyHealth's 2003 Annual Research Meeting.(Policy Reports)
June 1, 2004... THE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE INTERFACE BETWEEN RESEARCHERS AND USERS Jack Needleman is Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health, Department of Health Services, and Adjunct Associate Professor...

Effects of Medicare payment changes on nursing home staffing and deficiencies.(Policy Research)(Illustration)
June 1, 2004... The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) mandated the largest decrease in payments for nursing home residents covered by Medicare since 1965. The BBA fundamentally changed the way Medicare pays skilled nursing facilities for the 9 percent of...

Managed care and preventable hospitalization among Medicaid adults.(Policy Research)(Illustration)
June 1, 2004... Despite the rapid growth in Medicaid managed care (MMC) during the 1990s, there are limited data about the impact of managed care on Medicaid beneficiaries. Although managed care has been shown to improve access to primary care in some...

The Prevention Index: using technology to improve quality assessment.(Policy Research)
June 1, 2004... For the past decade, the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) has been used to evaluate the quality of outpatient care in many large managed care systems. The HEDIS has profoundly influenced the way preventive care is delivered...

The effect of smoking on Years of Healthy Life (YHL) lost among middle-aged and older Americans.(Smoking and Substance Abuse)(Illustration)
June 1, 2004... There is overwhelming evidence of the adverse effect of tobacco smoking on overall mortality (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2002) and of the ability of smoking cessation to extend life (Taylor et al. 2002). Furthermore, strong...

Alcohol drinking patterns and health care utilization in a managed care organization.(Smoking and Substance Abuse)
June 1, 2004... Alcoholism and alcohol abuse impose significant costs on society. One consequence that has received much attention is the possibility that alcohol abuse leads to increased health care utilization. Although the alcohol treatment cost offset...

Factors associated with physician interventions to address adolescent smoking.(Smoking and Substance Abuse)
June 1, 2004... Tobacco use is the leading cause of death in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1990), and is viewed as a pediatric disease because it has been estimated that 80-90 percent of adult smokers began smoking before the...

Linkage with primary medical care in a prospective cohort of adults with addictions in inpatient detoxification: room for improvement.(Smoking and Substance Abuse)
June 1, 2004... Many patients with addictions do not receive primary medical care. For example, of persons entering addiction treatment in Boston, only 41 percent reported having a primary care physician (Saitz, Mulvey, and Samet 1997). Yet these patients have...

Use of midlevel practitioners to achieve labor cost savings in the primary care practice of an MCO.(Health Care Economics)(Managed care organizations)
June 1, 2004... One strategy for managed care organizations (MCOs) to achieve cost savings is reconfiguration of division of labor so that care is aligned with a practitioner qualified to provide the care in a cost-effective manner. In primary care, MCOs can...

The lifetime distribution of health care costs.(Health Care Economics)
June 1, 2004... The distribution of health care costs is strongly age dependent, a phenomenon that takes on increasing relevance as the baby boom generation ages. After the first year of life, health care costs are lowest for children, rise slowly throughout...

Determining personal care consumers' preferences for a consumer-directed Cash and Counseling option: survey results from Arkansas, Florida, New Jersey, and New York elders and adults with physical disabilities.(Vulnerable Populations)
June 1, 2004... Mrs. Green needs personal care because of arthritis and heart trouble. She can do some things for herself, but she needs some help bathing, dressing, and preparing meals. In the Cash and Counseling option, she could receive cash...

Emergency department use among Michigan children with Special Health Care needs: an introductory study.(Vulnerable Populations)(Illustration)
June 1, 2004... In 1998 children under 15 years of age made more than 22 million visits to emergency departments (EDs) (McCaig 2000). Children's patterns of ED use have important implications for public policy, clinical practice, and the well-being of children...

Correction to: Was Lumpectomy Underutilized for Early Stage Breast Cancer?(Erratum)
June 1, 2004... Table 3 in the article (Brooks, Chrischilles, Scott, Chen-Hardee, "Was Lumpectomy Underutilized for Early Stage Breast Cancer?--Instrumental Variables Evidence for Stage II Patients from Iowa," 2003, Health Services Research 38 (6):1385-1402)...