No abstract available.
Medicare*

No abstract available.
Medicare*

The purposes of this study were 1) to review the Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) Act of the United States, 2) to introduce the efforts of the American Dietetic Association (ADA) to expand the Medicare coverage for MNT and 3) to provide information about the reimbursement under Medicare Part B for the cost of MNT. The MNT Act defined MNT services as "the nutritional diagnostic, therapeutic, and counseling services provided by a Registered Dietitian or nutritional professional for the purpose of managing diabetes or renal diseases". Also, the MNT Act defined "conditions for coverage of MNT", "limitations on coverage of MNT", and "qualifications of MNT service provider". To expand the coverage of Medicare to include MNT, the ADA realized the need for development of a protocol for MNT, as well as studies to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the MNT protocol developed. Therfore, the ADA supported the studies to develop a strong database of scientific investigations of nutritional services. Furthermore, the ADA needed credible data that could be used by policy makers, so the ADA contracted with the Lewin Group to carry out the study to gather the additional data needed to strengthen the ADA's position. In the report of the Lewin Group, which was entitled, "The Cost of Covering Medical Nutrition Therapy under Medicare: 1998 through 2004", it was concluded, that if coverage for MNT in the Part B portion of Medicare had begun in 1998, by 2004, approximately $ 2.3 billion would have been saved through reduced hospital spending under Part A of Medicare ($ 1.2 billion) and reduced physician visits under Part B ($ 1.1 billion). Effective January 1 2002, the US Congress extended Medicare coverage to include MNT to beneficiaries with diabetes or renal diseases. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) established the duration and frequency for the MNT based on published reports or generally accepted protocols (for example, protocols suggested by the ADA). The number of hours covered by Medicare is 3 hours for the initial MNT and 2 hours for a follow-up MNT. In 2002, a Medicare coverage policy was made to define the Physician's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes 97802, 97803, and 97804 for MNT.
Administrative Personnel ; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (U.S.) ; Counseling ; Current Procedural Terminology ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Medicare Part B ; Medicare* ; Nutrition Therapy* ; Nutritionists ; United States

The 20th National Assembly of Korea was called to order on April 13, 2016. The National Assembly is invested with the authority to play a significant role in influencing healthcare policy. There are many pending issues in healthcare policy that the Assembly needs to address in this term. The low fertility rate and population aging that Korea faces can exert a major impact on the healthcare system, as aging will lead to an expansion of non-communicable diseases, which can place a high burden on society. This requires strengthening the social security system, including National Health Insurance. A paradigm shift is necessary, in which healthcare providers are organized in the National Health Insurance using approaches such as the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and Patient_Centered Medical Home (PCMH), and people are offered choices similar to the US Medicare Advantage Program. Additionally, it is essential that healthcare accessibility is enhanced by covering catastrophic medical costs and guaranteeing patient safety through quality improvement so that healthcare costs are kept within an affordable range. Therefore, the 20th National Assembly must overcome differences in ideology to improve the healthcare system with the aim of promoting national health.
Accountable Care Organizations ; Aging ; Birth Rate ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Care Costs ; Health Personnel ; Health Policy* ; Humans ; Korea ; Medicare Part C ; National Health Programs ; Patient Safety ; Patient-Centered Care ; Quality Improvement ; Social Security

OBJECTIVES: The drug utilization review (DUR) system, which checks any conflict event of medications, contributes to improve patient safety. One of the important barriers in its adoption is doctors' resistance. This study aimed to analyze the impacts of doctors' resistance on the success of the DUR system. METHODS: This study adopted an augmented the DeLone and McLean Information System (D&M IS) Success Model (2003), which used doctors' resistance as a socio-technological measure. This study framework is the same as that of the D&M IS Success Model in that it is based on qualities, such as system, information, and services. The major difference is that this study excluded the variable 'use' because it was not statistically significant for mandatory systems. A survey of doctors who used computers to enter prescriptions was conducted at a Korean tertiary hospital in February 2012. RESULTS: This study is very meaningful in that it is the first study to explore the success factors of the DUR system associated with doctors' resistance. Doctors' resistance to the DUR system was not statistically associated with user usefulness, whereas it affected user satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that doctors still complain of discomfort in using the DUR system in the outpatient clinical setting, even though they admit that it contributes to patient safety. To mitigate doctors' resistance and raise user satisfaction, more opinions from doctors regarding the DUR system have to be considered and have to be reflected in the system.
Drug Utilization Review* ; Humans ; Information Systems ; Medicare Assignment ; Outpatients ; Patient Safety ; Prescriptions ; Tertiary Care Centers

The United States recently adopted an entirely new system of paying physicians for the services they provide to elderly and disabled patients. The new system is based on a fee schedule in which the relative values among different services are derived on the basis of the cost of providing such services. To control expenditure growth, a system of Volume Performance Standards (VPSs) was adopted, which explicitly links physician fee levels to the success the physician community has in controlling the total volume of services provided. This article presents and analyzes the new payment system and examines its applicability to other countries. It concludes that the methodology used to develop the fee schedule may be useful to other countries, particularly if they are unable to reach a consensus on appropriate physician fee levels, but that the VPS system needs to be refined in a number of ways before it can be successfully exported.
*Fee Schedules/legislation & jurisprudence ; Medicare Part B/*organization & administration ; Reimbursement Mechanisms ; *Relative Value Scales ; United States

PURPOSE: To assess real-world treatment patterns, health care utilization, costs, and survival among Medicare enrollees with locally advanced/unresectable or metastatic gastric cancer receiving standard first-line chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare linked database (2000~2009). The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) first diagnosed with locally advanced/unresectable or metastatic gastric cancer between July 1, 2000 and December 31, 2007 (first diagnosis defined the index date); (2) > or =65 years of age at index; (3) continuously enrolled in Medicare Part A and B from 6 months before index through the end of follow-up, defined by death or the database end date (December 31, 2009), whichever occurred first; and (4) received first-line treatment with fluoropyrimidine and/or a platinum chemo-therapy agent. RESULTS: In total, 2,583 patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean age at index was 74.8+/-6.0 years. Over 90% of patients died during follow-up, with a median survival of 361 days for the overall post-index period and 167 days for the period after the completion of first-line chemotherapy. The mean total gastric cancer-related cost per patient over the entire post-index follow-up period was United States dollar (USD) 70,808+/-56,620. Following the completion of first-line chemotherapy, patients receiving further cancer-directed treatment had USD 25,216 additional disease-related costs versus patients receiving supportive care only (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The economic burden of advanced gastric cancer is substantial. Extrapolating based on published incidence estimates and staging distributions, the estimated total disease-related lifetime cost to Medicare for the roughly 22,200 patients expected to be diagnosed with this disease in 2014 approaches USD 300 millions.
Aged* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Epidemiology ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Medicare ; Medicare Part A ; Platinum ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach Neoplasms* ; United States

No abstract available.
Insurance, Health* ; Medicare*

OBJECTIVE: To provide medicare services for patients demands satisfyingly, immediate introduction of the Customer Relationship Management(CRM) is raised inevitable. In this paper we proposed that the minimizing the hospital losses by cut down the rate of cancelation of the hospital reservation, to secure patients as clients. METHODS: And to implement the data mining-based healthcare customer relationship management system applied from the back propagation algorithm of the artificial neural networks technique and the Feature GENeration(FGEN) algorithm of the decision tree technique. RESULTS: In this paper we divided a patient to an appropriate group through a data mining process and classified more correct customer through a campaign process. CONCLUSION: These results would be essential for new patients to enhance hospital reliability, for hospital to select profitable patients with high loyalty and to manage patients efficiently.
Data Mining* ; Decision Trees ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Humans ; Medicare

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine factors influencing medication adherence in patients with hypertension. METHODS: This study carried out a secondary analysis of data from the 2008 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Stratified sampling was used to select a participant sample that was representative of patients with hypertension throughout the country. Using the SPSS/WIN 18.0 program, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi2 test, t-test, and logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the patients with hypertension, 8.8% had showed non-adherence to medication. Medication adherence was associated with age, spouse, Medicare insurance, number of other diseases, and current smoking status. The cases with older age, a spouse, Medicare insurance, higher number of other diseases, and no current smoking status showed significantly high medication adherence. CONCLUSION: Nursing interventions and further studies are needed to achieve high levels of medication adherence based on factors influencing medication adherence such as age, spouse, Medicare insurance, number of other disease, and current smoking status.
Humans ; Hypertension* ; Insurance ; Logistic Models ; Medicare ; Medication Adherence* ; Nursing ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Spouses