Health insurance providers are starting to realize what many of us have known for years: ambulatory surgical centers are more efficient and cost-effective than hospitals. This fact is backed up by data in a study published by Elizabeth L. Munnich and Stephen T. Parente in the medical journal Health Affairs.
This study looked at data from more than 50,000 surgeries that were performed at 437 different facilities. The findings showed that the same overall results were achieved at ASC as at hospitals, but that ASCs got the results in 25% less time and at a significantly lower cost.
This finding is especially relevant to health insurance providers now that the Affordable Care Act has resulted in millions of newly insured Americans. Hospitals alone will not be able to handle the growing demand for medical care.
You can read more about this this study here.
Are your patients following a low-dose aspirin regimen thinking it will reduce their risk of stroke, heart attack or heart disease? According to researchers and the 2019 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, they should stop immediately. Three recent studies have found that aspirin therapy may not be benefiting them. And, in some cases, it could be doing harm.
As healthcare professionals, we hear a lot about hypertension and its negative effect on overall health. But, we don’t talk as much as we should about pulmonary hypertension (PH) — the type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries that run between the lungs and heart. Because PH is a progressive condition that if untreated can result in death in as little as two years, it deserves its own spotlight.
The majority of men are still so private when it comes to their health concerns, they don’t even discuss them with a doctor. That’s one of the revelations reported by the Cleveland Clinic in their newest nationwide survey of male patients.
