Decoding the medical cost mystery

MIT: Providers and patients drive health care spending in roughly equal amounts, study shows. In Miami, health care providers spent about $14,423 per Medicare patient in 2010. But in Minneapolis, average spending on Medicare enrollees that year was $7,819, just over half as much. In fact, the U.S. is filled with regional disparities in medical spending. Why is this?

Cloth masks – dangerous to your health?

UNSW: The use of cloth masks by healthcare workers may actually put them at increased risk of respiratory illness and viral infections compared to medical masks, and their global use should be discouraged, according to a UNSW study. The results of the first randomised clinical trial to study the efficacy of cloth masks were published today in the journal BMJ Open. The study found respiratory infection was much higher among healthcare workers wearing cloth masks. The penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% compared to medical masks with 44%.

Study suggests ways to simplify health insurance enrollment​​​​​​​​​​

Washington: The federal health-care law has reduced the number of uninsured people by about 10 million. But challenges remain, including how to educate new enrollees about their coverage options. New research shows that communicating new, sometimes confusing information about the Affordable Care Act can be as simple as using plain language, providing comparisons to familiar contexts and using stories about how people might make health insurance decisions.

Healthcare at the touch of a finger

Cambridge: A new fingerprint ID device gives healthworkers access to accurate patient records.

Research explores patient views of GP safety

Manchester: New research conducted by The University of Manchester has found that GPs’ patients can feel alienated by lack of trust, impersonal processes and that this presents problems to improving their safety.