Delaware medical journal
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This paper describes the history of the Hospital Quality Initiative (HQI) and describes plans that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have for this data set. There are suggestions on how to improve physician acceptance of these benchmarks and how an institution can improve compliance rates with the data elements. There is also a discussion with respect to weaknesses and strengths of HQI. The advantages occuring to both the patient and physician when the physician participates in the HQI initiative are emphasized.
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Delaware medical journal · Jun 2005
Insulating patients from the cost of health care: changes in the financing and regulation of health care in the past 50 years.
The evolution of the current financing of health care in the United States has been outlined. Although the decisions leading to the current system have been well intentioned, the result is a costly system in which many patients are left without health insurance coverage. Two methods of reconnecting patients to the cost of care are presented (tiered co-pays and MSAs), which may be acceptable to patients. We can only hope that, over time, these types of cost-sharing methods, combined with the evolution of other patient-centric, "evidence-based" models of care (such as identification and intensive case management of high-risk cases) may lead to a more efficient and affordable system of health care in the United States.
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Delaware medical journal · Apr 2005
Review Comparative StudyMedical progress and the advances of biomedicine: a 50-year overview.