Lower Commercial Rates for Breast Surgical Procedures are Associated with Socioeconomic Disadvantage: A Transparency in Coverage Analysis.

Background: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the Transparency in Coverage Rule in 2022, which requires payers to disclose commercial rates for the first time in the history of the US healthcare system. The purpose of this study was to characterize payer-disclosed commercial facility rates and examine the relationship with county-level social disadvantage for common breast surgical procedures.

Materials And Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 2023 pricing data for 14 ablative and reconstructive breast procedures from Turquoise Health.

Within-Hospital Price Gaps Across National Insurers.

Importance: Commercial prices for hospital care are high and vary widely in the US. Employers and state policymakers are exploring reference-based pricing (RBP) to set their payment rates as multiples of Medicare prices; understanding the range of commercial price variation within a hospital is important for calculating the appropriate price targets that are effectively low to generate savings but also feasible and viable to local hospital markets.

Objective: To examine within-hospital maximum-to-minimum commercial hospital price gaps negotiated by 5 national insurers and estimate plan savings if the minimum prices within each hospital are used as new payment level.

A Review of Pediatric Appendicitis Imaging Trends from 2006-2020 Using the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample.

Background: Appendicitis is a common surgical emergency in the pediatric population, affecting over 70,000 children per year in the United States alone. While historically practitioners predominately used computed tomography (CT) as the main diagnostic imaging modality, multiple professional societies have released guidelines recommending an ultrasound (US) first strategy when using imaging to confirm suspected appendicitis in pediatric populations. To date, no studies have quantified the change in imaging trends for pediatric appendicitis across the spectrum of healthcare facilities in the United States utilizing the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS).

Correction: An Artificial Therapist (Manage Your Life Online) to Support the Mental Health of Youth: Co-Design and Case Series.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/46849.].

Long-term functional recovery after rib fractures: The impact of frailty.

Background: Previous studies have shown that patients with rib fractures experience long-term functional limitations. However, the specific predictors of these worse long-term functional limitations remain under-characterized.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study including patients ≥18 years with an injury severity score ≥9 and isolated chest injury.