You can call any change in public policy a natural experiment. This week we had a glimpse of some results.

Not bad for starters. Depending on the subspecialty, newly minted cardiologists made between $189,000 and $360,000 in 2013.

Market concentration may offer some efficiencies but that doesn’t guarantee savings. An analysis published in the Oct. 22/29 issue of JAMA found that insurers paid higher prices when physicians faced less competition.

Patient costs can be as much as 20 percent higher in multihospital systems as opposed to physician-owned, physician-run organizations, a study published in the Oct. 22/29 issue of JAMA found. These findings contradict assumptions that larger organizations would be able to leverage size and integrated services for better pricing. 

Stroke ranks high for costs to healthcare systems. A study published online Oct. 10 in Neurology added the price of informal caregiving for elderly stroke survivors in the U.S. to the equation: almost $27 billion annually.

October is here. Let the pain begin. That is, the 30-day readmission penalties.

A New York Times dive into the Open Payments database looked at the 130 physicians who earned more than $100,000 in industry payments. Cardiologists and plastic surgeons appear prominently in the article. Some doctors countered that they make less speaking and consulting than if they stayed in the clinic treating patients.

Differences in the time estimates for physician work accounted for almost 90 percent of the variance in a measure used to determine pay for doctors, a finding that helps explain the income gap between proceduralists and primary care physicians. The results were published online Sept. 18 in the Annals of Surgery.