Impact of Reaching the Medicare Part D Drug Benefit Threshold on Surgical Care and Health Outcomes Among Patients Newly Diagnosed With Gastrointestinal Cancer.

Background: Medicare Part D covers outpatient prescription drugs for elderly beneficiaries, but requires full cost coverage once the coverage gap threshold is reached. We assessed the impact of reaching Medicare Part D threshold on out-of-pocket costs (OOP), timely treatment, and outcomes for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancer.

Methods: Individuals newly diagnosed with GI cancer between 2007 and 2019 were identified from the SEER-Medicare database.

Variation in Cost Centers Following Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery.

Introduction: Despite cost-standardization efforts, significant variations in hospital costs persist in insurance claims. We sought to identify and quantify factors driving cost variability at hospital and cost center levels following a complex gastrointestinal surgical procedure.

Methods: Individuals who underwent pancreatectomy (PA), colectomy (CO), and proctectomy (PR) were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

Factors that Influence Teenage Antenatal Care Utilization in John Taolo Gaetsewe (JTG) District of Northern Cape Province, South Africa: Underscoring the Need for Tackling Social Determinants of Health.

Background And Objectives: In resource-limited settings, the uptake of antenatal care visits among women, especially teenage pregnant women, is disturbingly low. Factors that influence the uptake of ANC services among teenage women is largely understudied and poorly understood in John Taolo Gaetsewe (JTG), a predominantly rural and poor district of South Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the factors that influence uptake of ANC services among teenage mothers in JTG district.

Poverty and inequality - but of what - as social determinants of health in Africa?

Background: Many African economies have achieved substantial economic growth over the past recent years, yet several of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) including those concerned with health, remain considerably behind target. This paper examines whether progress towards these goals is being hampered by existing levels of poverty and income inequality. It also considers whether the inequality hypothesis of Wilkinson and Pickett1 applies to population health outcomes in African states.