Annals of internal medicine
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Women account for 23% of newly diagnosed HIV infections in the United States, but there are few recent, well-characterized cohorts of U.S. women in whom behavior characteristics and HIV acquisition have been well-described. ⋯ National Institutes of Health.
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Opioid overdose is a leading cause of accidental death in the United States. ⋯ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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Consensus is building that episode-based bundled payments can produce substantial Medicare savings, and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation's Bundled Payment Initiative endorses this concept. The program generates potential cost savings by reducing the historic cost of time-defined episodes of care, provided through a discount. ⋯ Such actions would mitigate the savings that Medicare might have accrued and may perpetuate the fee-for-service payment mechanism, with episodes of care becoming the new service. Although bundled payments have some advantages over the current reimbursement system, true cost-savings to Medicare will be realized only when the federal government addresses the use issue that underlies much of the waste inherent in the system and provides ample incentives to eliminate capacity and move toward capitation.