For Americans younger than 65, the share of people with private health insurance in a high-deductible plan increased from 39.4% in 2016 to 42.9% in 2017.
The overall infant mortality rate in the U.S. declined 14% between 2005 and 2015, from 6.86 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 5.90 in 2015, according to the CDC. However, CDC researchers found wide variation among the states, ranging from 9.08 deaths per 1,000 live births in Mississippi (the highest rate), to 4.28 deaths per 1,000 live births in Massachusetts (the lowest).
Women who were new patients waited an average of nearly 24 days to be seen by an ob/gyn, according to research by Athenahealth. In contrast, the new-patient wait to see for an orthopedist was 13 days. Waits for first appointments with primary care physicians, pediatricians, and cardiologists fell in between those two extremes.
Women are a key focus segment for health care organizations both because of the medical services they utilize as individuals and the influence they have on the health care of others. In one survey, 59% of women and 94% of working moms reported making or heavily influencing health care decisions for their entire families.
Baby boomers and millennials are the hardest hit by the heroin and opioid epidemic. Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, top the list, having 27% greater chance of dying from prescription opioids than people born in 1977 and 1979, the baseline group. They also have a 33% chance of dying from a heroin overdose.
Cut an inch-long incision into someone’s scalp. Then drill a hole into the skull that’s no bigger than a dime. Insert an electrode directly into the brain that targets the reward center, the nucleus accumbens. Then thread a wire beneath the skin to a pacemaker implanted in the patient’s chest. That’s deep brain stimulation.
Two men are the same age and they’ve both been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. One was diagnosed 10 years before the other, though. The man with the earlier onset of type 2 diabetes has about a 30% to 60% greater risk of dying from any cause.
It’s a must because there is a cost to keeping the underserved that way whether that means funding integrated primary care to help people live healthier lives or footing the bill when people get care in the emergency department.
The randomized controlled trial reigns supreme, but the FDA is working on ways to incorporate real-world evidence into its approval processes.
The direct-acting virals revolutionized the treatment of hepatitis C. They also ushered turbocharged pricing. At least patients—and society—got a major health benefit in return.
