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Current Topics in Public Health: Heroin’s Revival

Current Topics in Public Health: Heroin’s Revival 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

Heroin has a new face. According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it’s a white male in his 30s and 40s. Surprisingly, heroin use has grown in recent years, sounding alarms among community leaders, public health officials and law enforcement. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National…

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The Economics of Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis

The Economics of Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

According to estimates from the World Health Organization, 8.3 million people worldwide died from cancer and other neoplasms in 2008—about 14% of all deaths. In the same year, the overall costs of cancer care in the United States amounted to $228.1 billion– $93.2 billion direct medical costs, $18.8 billion in indirect morbidity costs, and $116.1…

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Value-Based Purchasing for Hospital Services in the U.S.

Value-Based Purchasing for Hospital Services in the U.S. 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program is an incentive-based repayment plan linked to the quality of care hospitals provide to Medicare patients. With VBP, hospitals are held accountable for both the quality and cost of their services, and must reach specified performance measures to be rewarded. CMS continues to…

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Reshaping the Clinical Laboratory in the Era of Patient-Centered Outcomes, Accountable Care Organizations, and Pharmacogenomics

Reshaping the Clinical Laboratory in the Era of Patient-Centered Outcomes, Accountable Care Organizations, and Pharmacogenomics 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

In recent years there has been renewed attention devoted to coordination of medical care services across the continuum of care, particularly in the area of prevention, monitoring, diagnostics, and disease management. This is not entirely new to the U.S. In the early 1990s, as managed care began to widen its reach and increase market share,…

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How Big a Problem is Health Care Fraud and Abuse, and How Can We Detect It?

How Big a Problem is Health Care Fraud and Abuse, and How Can We Detect It? 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

According to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the estimated annual costs of health care fraud in the U.S. are more than $70 billion, or about 3% of total national health care expenditures. This is an amount large enough to wipe out the savings from many…

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U.S. Health Care Costs: Disentangling Underlying Trends from the Effects of the Affordable Care Act

U.S. Health Care Costs: Disentangling Underlying Trends from the Effects of the Affordable Care Act 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

During the health reform discussions leading up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), there was a lot of talk about the costs of health care services in the U.S. Some argued that the legislation did not go far enough in controlling the underlying upward trends in health care costs, while others argued…

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Women and the Affordable Care Act

Women and the Affordable Care Act 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

Women make about 80% of the health-care decisions for their families, utilize more health care than men, and are the more likely to be the care givers when a family member becomes sick. Females of all ages accounted for 60% of all expenses incurred at doctors’ offices in 2004. According to the Bureau of Labor…

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Health Care Costs and Value: An International Perspective

Health Care Costs and Value: An International Perspective 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

During the recent debates over the Affordable Care Act (“ACA,” or Obamacare) a commonly raised issue was that U.S. health care does not offer much in the way of “value for money.” The argument, generally, is that we spend a lot more in the U.S. relative to comparable countries but in turn receive poor quality…

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Tobacco Butts and Litter Costs

Tobacco Butts and Litter Costs 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

Tobacco product litter is one of the most ubiquitous forms of litter, accumulating in increasingly large numbers on streets, highways, sidewalks, beaches, storm water drains, waste treatment plants, parks and other public places. Tobacco product litter (“TPL”) is not simply unattractive; it has been shown to be toxic and costly to clean up. More than…

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Training the Health Economics and Outcomes Research Workforce of the Future: Opportunities for Program Development in Colleges and Universities

Training the Health Economics and Outcomes Research Workforce of the Future: Opportunities for Program Development in Colleges and Universities 150 150 Avalon Health Economics LLC

The health care landscape in the U.S. has been changing rapidly in the past 20 years, a phase of evolution that began with the reluctance of private employers to continue to fund double-digit growth in employee health care costs, thereby creating incentives for third-party payers to develop “managed” insurance products. The next phase of those…

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