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The cost of emergency care: Emergency care cost estimates are too low

By Guest PostJune 1, 2013Healthabc, alpert medical school, brian zink, bundled payments, cost, data, ed, emergency care, emergency medicine, jeremiah schuur, marginal cost, michael lee, michael porter, model, rhode island hospital, robert kaplan, the miriam hospital, total spending, us emergency care

U.S. emergency care costs may be more than twice previously published estimates, according to a new analysis that critiques those estimates, argues for improved accounting, and suggests considering the value of emergency care as well as total spending.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Alternately praised in the aftermath of horrible tragedies as a heroic service and lamented in policy debates as an expensive safety net for people without primary care, emergency medicine is often a hot topic. Despite that importance, an analysis published online April 26 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine finds that national expenditures on emergency care are likely significantly higher than previously thought.

“The ER has become increasingly important as a place where people go for acute unscheduled care, however there has been little rigorous analysis of its cost structure,” said paper lead author Dr. Michael Lee, assistant professor of emergency medicine in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a physician at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. (more…)

Political strife undermines HIV treatment

By Guest PostMarch 27, 2013Health, Politicsaids reviews, ampath, antiretroviral therapy, brown university, conflict related disruption, elections, haart, highly active, hiv epidemics, hiv treatment, jane carter, Kenya, kenyan citizens, marita mann, moi university, policymakers, political conflict, political strife, political violence, post strife treatment, providence, rami kantor, sylvester kimaiyo, the miriam hospital, viral load

Among other tragedies in countries with HIV epidemics, political violence can have the additional long-term consequence of an increase in viral resistance to treatment and HIV treatment failure, say the authors of a new paper in AIDS Reviews. The researchers, who have studied post-strife treatment failure and resistance in Kenya, argue that officials and health care providers need to study and prepare for how violence disrupts antiretroviral treatment and complicates the epidemic.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — As Kenyan citizens negotiated the tensions following the March 4 nationwide elections, memories of the violence that followed the December 2007 vote weighed heavily for many reasons. Among those in any nation with an HIV epidemic, argue authors of a new paper in AIDS Reviews, should be the long-term damage that political conflict can do to public health by disrupting treatment and thereby promoting resistance to antiretroviral drugs and treatment failure. (more…)

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The cost of emergency care: Emergency care cost estimates are too low

Political strife undermines HIV treatment