Effects of Real-time Prescription Benefit Recommendations on Patient Out-of-Pocket Costs: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Rising drug costs contribute to medication nonadherence and adverse health outcomes. Real-time prescription benefit (RTPB) systems present prescribers with patient-specific out-of-pocket cost estimates and recommend lower-cost, clinically appropriate alternatives at the point of prescribing.

Objective: To investigate whether RTPB recommendations lead to reduced patient out-of-pocket costs for medications.

Early Palliative Care for Patients With Brain Metastases Decreases Inpatient Admissions and Need for Imaging Studies.

Background: Early encounters with palliative care (PC) can influence health-care utilization, clinical outcome, and cost.

Aim: To study the effect of timing of PC encounters on brain metastasis patients at an academic medical center.

Setting/participants: All patients diagnosed with brain metastases from January 2013 to August 2015 at a single institution with inpatient and/or outpatient PC records available for review (N = 145).

Early Lessons on Bundled Payment at an Academic Medical Center.

Introduction: Orthopaedic care is shifting to alternative payment models. We examined whether New York University Langone Medical Center achieved savings under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative.

Methods: This study was a difference-in-differences study of Medicare fee-for-service patients hospitalized from April 2011 to June 2012 and October 2013 to December 2014 for lower extremity joint arthroplasty, cardiac valve procedures, or spine surgery (intervention groups), or for congestive heart failure, major bowel procedures, medical peripheral vascular disorders, medical noninfectious orthopaedic care, or stroke (control group).