JAMA cardiology
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Multicenter Study
Association Between Medicare Hospital Readmission Penalties and 30-Day Combined Excess Readmission and Mortality.
US hospitals receive financial penalties for excess risk-standardized 30-day readmissions and mortality in Medicare patients. Under current policy, readmission prevention is incentivized over 10-fold more than mortality reduction. ⋯ In fiscal year 2014, financial penalties for one-third of US hospitals would have been substantially altered if 30-day readmission and mortality were considered equally important. Under most circumstances, patients would rather avoid death than rehospitalization. Current Medicare financial penalties do not meet the goals of aligning incentives and fairly reimbursing hospitals for patient-centered outcomes.
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Comparative Study
Association Between Intensity of Statin Therapy and Mortality in Patients With Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.
High-intensity statin therapy is recommended for the secondary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Nevertheless, statin therapy in general, and high-intensity statin therapy in particular, is underused in patients with established ASCVD. ⋯ We found a graded association between intensity of statin therapy and mortality in a national sample of patients with ASCVD. High-intensity statins were associated with a small but significant survival advantage compared with moderate-intensity statins, even among older adults. Maximal doses of high-intensity statins were associated with a further survival benefit.
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There is increasing interest in the effect of cardiovascular disease on cancer survivors. However, there are limited contemporary population-based data on the risk of cardiovascular death after early-stage breast cancer. ⋯ Cardiovascular death is an important competing risk for older women with early-stage breast cancer. This finding mandates adequate attention to cardiovascular preventive therapy after diagnosis of breast cancer.