Friday, June 27, 2003

Federal Rules Add Burden to Costs for Uninsured Patients
Medscape Medical News story - "Federal regulations that prevent hospitals and other health providers from charging different rates for the same service end up forcing uninsured patients to pay more than those with insurance, plunging them into medical debt they can't afford, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free]. See also the Commonwealth Fund study, Unintended Consequences: How Federal Regulations and Hospital Policies Can Leave Patients in Debt (Adobe Acrobat format).  
  

Time of Day Influences Nonattendance at Urgent Short-Term Mental Health Unit in Victoria, British Columbia
Article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - "To our knowledge, our findings present the first North American evidence that simply making the first appointment in the afternoon could significantly decrease FTNS and thus ensure better use of scarce health care resources."  
  

AHCPR And The Changing Politics Of Health Services Research
Article in Health Affairs - "The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research has had a turbulent history. Created with little opposition in 1989, it narrowly escaped being eliminated in 1995, only to be reauthorized (with a new mandate and name—the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ) with overwhelming support in 1999. In focusing on budgetary history, this paper sheds light on why health services research (HSR) has difficulty obtaining funding from a government that is willing to spend vast sums on basic biomedical research. The paper argues that three strategies—bureaucratic, marketing, and constituency building—that advocates adopted in the late 1980s made HSR more visible and consequential and were responsible for AHCPR’s budgetary successes as well as its near-demise...." Also available in Adobe Acrobat format.