The American journal of managed care
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To describe the results of a program developed to manage institutional postacute care (IPAC) (postacute skilled nursing, inpatient rehabilitation facility, and long-term acute care) in a CMS Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) project for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. ⋯ A strong association exists between a focused patient functional recovery program and IPAC use reduction after CABG surgery. Using a structured approach to clinical analytics and hypothesis testing of redesign efforts when managing postacute care populations removes waste from care delivery.
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Economic incentives and patent protections drive development of innovative medications. Drug prices are determined by consumer demand, not production costs. Therefore, governmental regulation risks future investment in research and development.
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To assess whether discharging hospitals' self-reported care transition activities (CTAs) were associated with transitional care management (TCM) claims following discharge to the community and whether CTAs and TCM were associated with better patient outcomes. ⋯ Beyond recent increases in provider TCM compensation and relaxed billing restrictions, hospitals should be encouraged to increase CTA and to enhance care transitions to improve patient outcomes and lower spending.
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Text messaging could be effective for determining patient eligibility for lung cancer screening (LCS). We explored people's willingness to share their tobacco use history via text message among diverse groups. ⋯ Text messaging showed promise for evaluating smoking history and for simplifying the process of identifying LCS-eligible individuals. However, achieving equity in identifying eligibility for LCS requires the implementation of multimodal strategies.
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Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are at high risk for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). The onset of incident CKD may complicate glycemic control among these patients. This study aimed to characterize antihyperglycemic medication use after incident CKD onset among patients with T2D to inform disease management. ⋯ Treatment of T2D was considerably heterogenous by HbA1C level and CKD severity in patients with incident CKD. Current agents may not sufficiently fulfill the unmet need of T2D management in patients with CKD.