JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Urinary tract infection is among the most common reasons for an outpatient visit and antibiotic use in adult populations. The increasing prevalence of antibacterial resistance among community uropathogens affects the diagnosis and management of this clinical syndrome. ⋯ Immediate antimicrobial therapy with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, nitrofurantoin, or fosfomycin is indicated for acute cystitis in adult women. Increasing resistance rates among uropathogens have complicated treatment of acute cystitis. Individualized assessment of risk factors for resistance and regimen tolerability is needed to choose the optimum empirical regimen.
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Recent governmental and private initiatives have sought to reduce health care costs by making health care prices more transparent. ⋯ Use of price transparency information was associated with lower total claims payments for common medical services. The magnitude of the difference was largest for advanced imaging services and smallest for clinical office visits. Patient access to pricing information before obtaining clinical services may result in lower overall payments made for clinical care.
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Hospitals are rapidly acquiring medical groups and physician practices. This consolidation may foster cooperation and thereby reduce expenditures, but also may lead to higher expenditures through greater use of hospital-based ambulatory services and through greater hospital pricing leverage against health insurers. ⋯ From the perspective of the insurers and patients, between 2009 and 2012, hospital-owned physician organizations in California incurred higher expenditures for commercial HMO enrollees for professional, hospital, laboratory, pharmaceutical, and ancillary services than physician-owned organizations. Although organizational consolidation may increase some forms of care coordination, it may be associated with higher total expenditures.