'Small benefits and a certain risk': Media representations of novel treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

The media is a key site for developing and communicating public understanding of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is a leading cause of dementia, and a condition that is prominent in public perceptions of ageing and cognitive decline. Novel disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) are the first innovation in Alzheimer's disease treatment for two decades, and have the potential to change how society thinks about Alzheimer's disease.

Stakeholder perspectives on the governance and accountability of Nigeria's Basic Health Care Provision Fund.

In recent decades, Nigeria has implemented a number of health financing reforms, yet progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has remained slow. In particular, the introduction of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) through the National Health Act of 2014 sought to increase coverage of basic health services in Nigeria. However, recent studies have shown that health financing schemes like the BHCPF in Nigeria are suboptimal and have frequently attributed this to weak accountability and governance of the schemes.

Politics and Policymaking in Medicare Part C.

Background: Once just a small part of the Medicare program, private managed care plans now cover over one-third of all Medicare beneficiaries and cost the Federal government ~$210 billion each year. Importantly, the evolution of Medicare managed care policy has been far from linear; for several decades there have been dramatic shifts in the payment and regulatory policies facing private Medicare managed care plans.

Objectives: This article presents a critical review of the history of Medicare managed care payment and regulatory policies and discusses the role of political ideology and stakeholder influence in shaping the direction of policy over time.

Competition and health plan quality in the Medicare Advantage market.

Objective: To examine the relationship between insurer market structure, health plan quality, and health insurance premiums in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program.

Data Sources/study Setting: Administrative data files from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with other secondary data sources.

Study Design: Trends in MA market concentration from 2008 to 2017 are presented, alongside logistic and linear regression models examining MA plan quality and premiums as a function of insurer market structure for 2011.

Rising Use Of Observation Care Among The Commercially Insured May Lead to Total And Out-Of-Pocket Cost Savings.

Proponents of hospital-based observation care argue that it has the potential to reduce health care spending and lengths-of-stay, compared to short-stay inpatient hospitalizations. However, critics have raised concerns about the out-of-pocket spending associated with observation care. Recent reports of high out-of-pocket spending among Medicare beneficiaries have received considerable media attention and have prompted direct policy changes.

Out-of-Pocket Spending for Hospitalizations Among Nonelderly Adults.

Importance: Patients' out-of-pocket spending for major health care expenses, such as inpatient care, may result in substantial financial distress. Limited contemporary data exist on out-of-pocket spending among nonelderly adults.

Objectives: To evaluate out-of-pocket spending associated with hospitalizations and to assess how this spending varied over time and by patient characteristics, region, and type of insurance.

Health care costs, utilization and patterns of care following Lyme disease.

Background: Lyme disease is the most frequently reported vector borne infection in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control have estimated that approximately 10% to 20% of individuals may experience Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome - a set of symptoms including fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and neurocognitive complaints that persist after initial antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease. Little is known about the impact of Lyme disease or post-treatment Lyme disease symptoms (PTLDS) on health care costs and utilization in the United States.

Premature adult mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCD) in three middle-income countries: do NCD programmes matter?

BACKGROUND In many middle-income countries, there is limited data available to evaluate the effectiveness of non-communicable disease (NCD) programmes. Since 1970, three neighbouring middle-income countries-Argentina, Chile and Uruguay-have undergone health sector reforms and reorganized their NCD programmes. In this paper, we explore whether data on premature adult mortality can be used to gauge the effectiveness of these programmes.

Medicare Advantage's private fee-for-service plans: paying for coordinated care without the coordination.

Like the private managed care plans offered under Medicare Advantage, private fee-for-service (PFFS) plans are paid more per beneficiary than those individuals would be expected to cost if they were enrolled in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. However, PFFS plans are not required to provide the same type of coordinated care required of Medicare Advantage plans. Payments to PFFS plans in 2008 average 16.

The continuing cost of privatization: extra payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2008.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 explicitly increased Medicare payments to private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. As a result, every MA plan in the nation is paid more for its enrollees than they would have been expected to cost in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. The authors calculate that payments to MA plans in 2008 will be 12.

The cost of privatization: extra payments to Medicare Advantage plans--updated and revised.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 sharply increased payments to private Medicare Advantage plans. As a result, every plan in every county in the nation was paid more in 2005 than its enrollees would have been expected to cost if they had been enrolled in traditional fee-for-service Medicare. The authors calculate that payments to Medicare Advantage plans averaged 12.