Economics

This channel highlights factors that impact hospital and healthcare economics and revenue. This includes news on healthcare policies, reimbursement, marketing, business plans, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain, salaries, staffing, and the implementation of a cost-effective environment for patients and providers.

Thumbnail

From concept to clearance: Why it’s so expensive to develop new CV drugs

It costs tens of millions of dollars to approve any new therapy for use in a clinical setting, but a recent analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine found one class of medication comes at a price more than 100-fold higher than the average: cardiovascular drugs.

Cardiovascular surgeons, invasive cardiologists are top revenue-generators for hospitals

The average cardiovascular surgeon drives nearly $3.7 million in net revenue each year for a hospital system, the most among 18 physician specialties included in a survey of hospital chief financial officers. Invasive cardiologists weren’t far behind, ranking No. 2 at almost $3.5 million per year.

Thumbnail

Senators question drugmakers over rising insulin prices

Two U.S. senators launched a bipartisan investigation into rising insulin prices on Feb. 22, sending letters to the drug's top three manufacturers seeking information about why costs have risen so sharply in recent years.

Thumbnail

Quality of CAD care higher for Medicare Advantage patients

Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) enrolled in private insurance plans through Medicare Advantage (MA) are more likely to receive guideline-recommended medications for secondary prevention than those in fee-for-service Medicare, according to a new analysis in JAMA Cardiology. But that wasn't tied to improvements in blood pressure or cholesterol levels.

Thumbnail

Department of Energy opens negotiations with 4 US companies to fund Mo-99 production

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will negotiate with four U.S. companies to potentially fund molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production without the use of highly enriched uranium.

Nearly half of Americans with ASCVD struggle with medical bills

About 45 percent of Americans with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) experience financial hardship related to medical bills, despite most of them having health insurance, according to a new paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Thumbnail

Food deserts linked to poor CV outcomes

Living in food deserts—residential areas with low net income and poor access to healthy food—was independently linked to adverse outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease in a study of nearly 5,000 subjects, researchers reported Feb. 11 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Upping physicians' pay-for-performance bonuses tied to better care

Increasing physicians’ bonus sizes was linked to significantly improved quality of care for their patients, according to a study from a single health system published Feb. 8 in JAMA Network Open. However, adding the behavioral economic principles of social pressure and loss aversion failed to further improve providers’ effectiveness.

Around the web

Ron Blankstein, MD, professor of radiology, Harvard Medical School, explains the use of artificial intelligence to detect heart disease in non-cardiac CT exams.

Eleven medical societies have signed on to a consensus statement aimed at standardizing imaging for suspected cardiovascular infections.