Grantees in the News

Employers and health plans are increasingly interested in telemedicine as a mode of care delivery, and many are now offering either full or partial virtual care services. As Joseph Kvedar discusses in Medpage Today’s KevinMD.com, provider organizations are also wading into this new business model as an extension of brick and mortar clinics. Kvedar references recent HCFO-funded work from R.

Bronson Healthcare Group is adding to the growing prevalence of retail health clinics by opening its second FastCare clinic in Michigan. As Mark Sanchez of MiBiz reports, retail clinics offer patients convenient, lower-cost options to treat minor conditions, but they may drive up health care utilization and overall spending.

Located in storefronts and pharmacies, retail clinics offer convenient, quality care for lower costs than care delivered at physicians’ offices or urgent care centers. In a piece for the New York Times Upshot, Aaron E.

Last month the Obama administration unveiled a drug payment pilot program that would fundamentally change how doctors are reimbursed for administering injection drugs. The pilot would reduce doctors’ earnings on the most expensive drugs while making older generics more lucrative. In a piece for the Washington Post, Carolyn Johnson discusses the evidence that supports both sides of the argument.

Given its convenience and accessibility, telemedicine is an increasingly popular model of health care, particularly for the management of common acute illnesses. But how does the quality of virtual urgent care visits compare to traditional physician office visits? In a piece for Reuters, Lisa Rapaport discusses findings from a HCFO-funded study from R.

As consumers are encouraged to make value-based decisions, the need for transparency in health care prices is essential. However, there is little evidence as to how patients use health care price transparency tools.

How do most people view the association between health care prices and quality of care? Drawing on previous HCFO-funded work, grantees David Schleifer and Carolin Hagelskamp of Public Agenda sought to answer this question.

As consumers take on a more active role in managing their health care, it is important that price and quality information is accessible and accurate. In a recent piece for the Health Affairs Blog, Suzanne Delbanco and Lea Tessitore of Catalyst for Payment Reform discuss the evolution of price transparency tools and what still needs to be done.

Consumer groups and unions have been voicing their concerns over the proposed Anthem-Cigna and Aetna-Humana mergers. In a piece for the Plunderbund blog, John Michael Spinelli discusses the Ohioan groups that have asked Lt. Governor Mary Taylor to hold hearings on the matter to evaluate the impact of the mergers on competition within different health care markets.

Retail clinics have been viewed as a convenient option for treating minor ailments at a lower cost than visits to physician offices or emergency departments, leading policymakers and health insurers to believe that they may reduce health care spending.