All Articles on Costs

• Avoiding “voltage drop” when treatments move from research to practice

  According to Dr. Tom Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), “There is a well-described ‘voltage drop,’ or decrease in efficacy, when we move treatments from the research setting to real world practice.”
• The patient's role in surgery choices: More engagement, better care

  By providing care in a way that is more patient centered, Group Health is also demonstrating one way the nation might address an epidemic of overtreatment and medical harm—and its related suffering.
• Introducing decision aids may lower surgery for arthritis

  After Group Health Cooperative introduced video-based “decision aids” for people with knee and hip arthritis, rates of knee and hip replacement surgeries dropped sharply: by 38 and 26 percent, respectively, over six months. The cost of caring for those patients also declined: by 12 percent to 21 percent, according to an article in the September Health Affairs.
• A ‘learning health system’ moves from idea to action

  In the United States, clinicians are struggling to provide better and more affordable health care to more people—while keeping up with new scientific developments. The idea of a “learning health system” is one proposed solution for rapidly applying the best available scientific evidence in real-time clinical practice. In the August 7 Annals of Internal Medicine, a Group Health Cooperative team describes the experience of turning this intriguing concept into action.
• Good, affordable health care for all: How long will it take?

  The decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should put our country on a straighter path toward improving access, affordability, and quality for all—imperatives in our Institute’s mission.
• What do patients really want? PCORI-funded research raises the bar

  Here at GHRI—and other similar research organizations across the U.S.—scientists are busy preparing proposals for PCORI, a federally funded nonprofit organization that the Affordable Care Act established to focus on comparative effectiveness research.
• Genetic testing may not trigger more use of health services

  People have more and more chances to participate in genetic testing that can indicate their range of risk for developing a disease. Receiving these results does not appreciably drive up—or diminish—test recipients’ demand for potentially costly follow-up health services, according to a new study in the May 17, 2012 early online issue of Genetics in Medicine.