The American journal of managed care
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Comparative Study
Optimizing enrollment in employer health programs: a comparison of enrollment strategies in the Diabetes Health Plan.
Many health programs struggle with low enrollment rates. ⋯ For employer-based programs that struggle with low enrollment rates, especially among certain employee subgroups, an automatic enrollment strategy may not only increase the total number of enrollees but may also decrease some enrollment disparities.
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To explore the feasibility of using a distributed data model for ongoing reporting of local healthcare spending, specifically to investigate the contribution of utilization and pricing to geographic variation and trends in reimbursements for commercially insured beneficiaries younger than 65 years. ⋯ This research demonstrates the feasibility and value of public reporting of standardized area-level utilization and price data using a distributed data model to understand variation and trends in reimbursements.
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Depression is associated with lowered work functioning, including absence, productivity impairment at work, and decreased job retention. Although high-quality depression treatment provided in clinical trials has been found to reduce symptoms and improve work function, the effectiveness of routine treatment for depression in primary care has received less attention. ⋯ This study demonstrated a significant relationship betweenimprovement in depression symptoms and improvements in productivity following routine primary care depression treatment. These findings underscore the benefit of depression care to improve work outcomes and to yield a potential return on healthcare investment to employers.
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Despite the significant prevalence of elevated blood pressure (BP) and body mass index (BMI) in children, few studies have assessed their combined impact on healthcare costs. This study estimates healthcare costs related to BP and BMI in children and adolescents. ⋯ This study shows strong associations of prehypertension and hypertension, independent of BMI, with healthcare costs in children. Although BMI status was also statistically significantly associated with costs, the major influence on cost in this large cohort of children and adolescents was BP status. Costs related to elevated BMI may be systematically overestimated in studies that do not adjust for BP status.