Racial Disparities in Outpatient Physical Therapy Use After Hip Fracture: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

To examine whether there was a racial disparity among Medicare beneficiaries in the likelihood of using outpatient physical therapy (PT) services following a hip fracture. Our retrospective descriptive cohort study analyzed administrative claims data for 51 781 Medicare beneficiaries post hip fracture. We examined the association between race and PT use within the first 6 months post fracture using hierarchical logistic regression, adjusting for demographics, medical complexity, and socioeconomic factors.

Chasing the Dragon: Driving the Paradigm Shift to Move Beyond Opioids.

The opioid crisis is more severe in the United States than in any other country. This may be due, in part, to a cultural problem related to pain: Americans have come to expect quick, easy, physician-provided pain relief. Pharmaceuticals can neither cure injuries nor correct the underlying cause of any chronic musculoskeletal condition.

Chasing the Dragon: Driving the Paradigm Shift to Move Beyond Opioids.

"Chasing the dragon" is a term that originated 150 years ago in China after the Opium Wars to refer to the act of heating opium and inhaling its vapor. The phrase has a second meaning, describing the dangerous pursuit of the mythical, ultimate high. However, health systems are using opioids in the pursuit of something likely mythical but similarly elusive - a passive treatment for pain that is rapid, effective, and safe.

Examining Drivers of Health Care Spending: Evidence on Self-referral Among a Privately Insured Population.

Background: Despite the enactment of laws to restrict the practice of self-referral, exceptions in these prohibitions have enabled these arrangements to persist and proliferate. Most research documenting the effects of self-referral arrangements analyzed claims records from Medicare beneficiaries. Empirical evidence documenting the effects of self-referral on use of services and spending incurred by persons with private insurance is sparse.