Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

First Edition: May 4, 2010

Today's headlines include stories about parts of the new health reform law dealing with long-term care, high risk insurance pools and early retiree health insurance.

4 May 2010

Pay-for-performance programs could end up widening medical disparities: RAND study

Rewarding primary care physicians for providing better care to patients could end up widening medical disparities experienced by poorer people and those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

4 May 2010

Role of pharmacists on primary care health teams to be discussed during Health Affairs press briefing

Smith will discuss the role of pharmacists on primary care health teams during a Health Affairs press briefing on Tuesday, May 4 at 11:30 a.m. ET. She will be joined by an interprofessional team of colleagues that includes Christine Cassell of the American Board of Internal Medicine, Joanne Pohl of the University of Michigan School of Nursing and Bill Leinweber from the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

4 May 2010

$Osteoporosis screening can reduce risk of future fractures$

Osteoporosis screening can reduce risk of future fractures

One in two women in the United States will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in her lifetime. However, according to a review article published in the May 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), only a few of these women will be tested and treated for osteoporosis, which if identified and treated, could dramatically decrease their risk of future fractures.

4 May 2010

Obese men more likely to have low testosterone than non-obese men: HIM study

Obesity, a condition linked to heart disease and diabetes, now appears to be associated with another health problem, but one that affects men only -- low testosterone levels.

4 May 2010

One-half of physicians do not recommend bariatric surgery for adolescents

Severely obese adolescents may desire or potentially benefit from bariatric surgery. However, half of primary care physicians say they would not recommend the procedure to a patient under the age of 18, according to research published in Obesity Surgery

4 May 2010

NIH awards UIC $10M grant to study health disparities among underserved, minority women with breast cancer

A $9.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health has been awarded to the University of Illinois at Chicago to study access to care and health disparities among underserved and minority women with breast cancer in Chicago.

4 May 2010

California community health centers face potentially crippling budget cuts

North Bay (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Business Journal: "While community health centers are widely seen as winners with the passage of a sweeping health bill in late March, such centers in California face potentially crippling state budget cuts, which could offset potential gains that won't take effect until 2014, according to clinic directors throughout the North Bay.

3 May 2010

Baltimore hospitals buying, consolidating doctors' practices in bid for efficiency

Hospitals and other systems in the Baltimore area are "buying practices, forming management agreements or structuring joint ventures with primary care practices that cannot afford to buy necessary electronic health records systems, hire more support staff or add another physician" in a bid to consolidate primary care in the area and lower overhead, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. For many doctors, the cost of doing business in a small, office-based setting is becoming prohibitive.

3 May 2010

Researchers develop asthma medical home to care children with asthma

A comprehensive, patient-centered approach to asthma care that includes education, referrals to specialists and home visits not only improves patients' health but also has tremendous potential to decrease health care costs, according to research to be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

3 May 2010

Research roundup: Managing nursing home patients, streamlining medical billing, financial disclosures

Saving Billions Of Dollars--And Physicians' Time--By Streamlining Billing Practices - "The U.S. system of billing third parties for health care services is complex, expensive, and inefficient," write the authors, who analyzed Massachusetts General Physicians Organization staffing and cost data in fiscal year 2006.

3 May 2010

Philadelphia insurer to implement pay-for-performance model

The Philadelphia region's largest health insurer, Independence Blue Cross, will begin a pay-for-performance model that pays physicians more if their patient's health gets better. The program rewards primary care doctors who provide higher quality care at less cost. "A key element of the program rewards doctors who meet standards as so-called patient-centered medical homes.

3 May 2010

Ipsen's first-quarter 2010 drug sales up 6.2%

Ipsen reported today its sales for the first quarter 2010.

3 May 2010

Measuring children's blood pressure is complicated: Researchers

A Johns Hopkins Children's Center study of 2,500 patient records suggests that medical staff fails to check a child's blood pressure a fifth of the time, and is not recognizing what constitutes an abnormal reading in those whose blood pressure they do check.

3 May 2010

ATN study shows prevalence of GI symptoms in children with ASD

Parents of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders sometimes report that their children suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea and constipation. However, studies on how prevalent these symptoms are have had conflicting results.

3 May 2010

Obese women more likely to have breast cancer at later stage: Study

Obese women are more likely to have breast cancer detected at a later stage and to have lymph node metastases when diagnosed than women who are not obese, according to a study presented this week at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

3 May 2010

Studies prompt attention to streamlining medical billing

The Wall Street Journal reports on two different studies published recently that focus on the billing practices of doctors. One, in the New England Journal of Medicine quantifies the work done in billing at a small primary care practice.

3 May 2010

Adequate primary care is associated with fewer ear and throat surgeries among children

The availability of surgeons may increase the likelihood that children will receive optional ear and throat surgeries, while the availability of primary care providers, such as pediatricians and family physicians, may decrease the likelihood of children undergoing these procedures, according to research to be presented Saturday, May 1 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

3 May 2010

UCLA researchers show risks associated with heavy drinking among elderly adults

A new study by researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA has found that more than a third of drinkers 60 years old and older consume amounts of alcohol that are excessive or that are potentially harmful in combination with certain diseases they may have or medications they may be taking.

30 Apr 2010

Study examines doctors' uncompensated daily work

The New York Times: "A new study detailing the uncompensated work burden on family doctors points to the need to change how they are paid, medical experts say — particularly as the new health care law promises to add millions more patients to the system. … Family doctors make up the embattled front line of the nation's health care system.

30 Apr 2010