JAMA network open
-
Navigating health insurance and health care choices requires considerable health insurance literacy. Although recommended preventive services are exempt from out-of-pocket costs under the Affordable Care Act, many people may remain unaware of this provision and its effect on their required payment. Little is known about the association between individuals' health insurance literacy and their use of preventive or nonpreventive health care services. ⋯ This study's findings suggest that lower health insurance literacy may be associated with greater avoidance of both preventive and nonpreventive services. It appears that to improve appropriate use of recommended health care services, including preventive health services, clinicians, health plans, and policymakers may need to communicate health insurance concepts in accessible ways regardless of individuals' health insurance literacy. Plain language communication may be able to improve patients' understanding of services exempt from out-of-pocket costs.
-
The Johns Hopkins Community Health Partnership was created to improve care coordination across the continuum in East Baltimore, Maryland. ⋯ A care coordination model consisting of complementary bundled interventions in an urban academic environment was associated with lower spending and improved health outcomes.
-
Despite evidence that therapeutic hypothermia improves patient outcomes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, use of this therapy remains low. ⋯ In a US registry of patients who experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the use of guideline-recommended therapeutic hypothermia decreased after publication of the Targeted Temperature Management trial, which supported more lenient temperature thresholds. Concurrent with this change, survival among patients admitted to the hospital decreased, but was not mediated by use of hypothermia.
-
A US National Study of the Association Between Income and Ambulance Response Time in Cardiac Arrest.
Emergency medical services (EMS) provide critical prehospital care, and disparities in response times to time-sensitive conditions, such as cardiac arrest, may contribute to disparities in patient outcomes. ⋯ Patients with cardiac arrest from the poorest neighborhoods had longer EMS times compared with those from the wealthiest, and response times were less likely to meet national benchmarks in low-income areas, which may lead to increased disparities in prehospital delivery of care over time.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Acute Effects of Smoked and Vaporized Cannabis in Healthy Adults Who Infrequently Use Cannabis: A Crossover Trial.
Vaporization is an increasingly popular method for cannabis administration, and policy changes have increased adult access to cannabis drastically. Controlled examinations of cannabis vaporization among adults with infrequent current cannabis use patterns (>30 days since last use) are needed. ⋯ Vaporized and smoked cannabis produced dose-orderly drug effects, which were stronger when vaporized. These data can inform regulatory and clinical decisions surrounding the use of cannabis among adults with little or no prior cannabis exposure.