Last night, Dr. John Romley was interviewed by ABC News about Disparity in Billing Procedures in Medicare. ABC News Correspondent, Ric Romero, spoke to John on why hospital fees vary widely for the same procedure.

Please click HERE to see the News Segment.

Sophie Terp, MD, MPH, Research Fellow and Clinical Instructor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, won the Outstanding Plenary Session Research Presentation Award at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Western Regional Meeting held in Long Beach, CA on March 22nd. Dr. Terp presented on the association between regional primary care provider density and rates of emergency department visits for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC). ACSCs are medical disorders for which timely and appropriate outpatient care may prevent the need for treatment in an acute care setting.

Her preliminary work found that potentially avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations for ACSC are inversely associated with the density of primary care providers at the county level, and that the negative relationship was strongest among the adult Medicaid and aged Medicare populations. Findings indicate that improving availability and accessibility of primary care providers might be key to reducing avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations, particularly in areas that are currently under served.

Her abstract was also selected for presentation at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Annual Assembly in Atlanta, GA on May 17^th.

Dr. Julie Zissimopoulos, associate director of the Schaeffer Center, has written an article for the International Social Security Review, titled “Retirement and Health Benefits for Mexican Migrant Workers Returning from the United States.”

This article examines the level of access to social security benefits that return migrants and non-migrants have. The results of this article inform the debate on a bilateral social security agreement between the United States and Mexico. To read more, please click here.

Neeraj Sood, Associate Professor and Director of International Programs at the Schaeffer Center, as well as Zachary Wagner, a Project Specialist also at the Schaeffer Center, found that Medical Patients Aren’t Bargain Hunters.

An article higlighting this new case study, was recently featured in USC News.  As stated in the article, “Examining the consumer decisions with and without CDHPs when receiving nine common outpatient services (such as office visits, chest X-rays and colonoscopies), researchers found that patients with CDHPs paid roughly the same amount as their traditionally insured counterparts for eight out of nine services analyzed. The only exception was office visits where the researchers found that patients with CDHPs paid about 2 percent less.”

http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/48899/medical-patients-arent-bargain-hunters-study-finds/

Jeremy Barofsky, a postdoctoral research scholar at the Schaeffer Center will be doing a seminar from 12pm-1pm on Tuesday April 9.

This seminar, titled, “Substitutes in Medical Care? The impact of Medicare Part D on spending and utilization in Medicare Parts A and B” will be featured in our main conference room. Please contact the front desk at info@healthpolicy.usc.edu for additional information.

Abstract: The introduction of Medicare Part D constitutes the largest expansion of government-provided health insurance since Medicare was created in 1965. Created in 2006, Medicare Part D costs over $60 billion a year and provides prescription drug coverage for 28 million elderly Americans. The program’s supporters and previous research suggest that expanding drug coverage would reduce the cost and utilization of other types of medical care. However, using comprehensive Medicare Part D claims data, we find that the cost offsets produced by Medicare Part D coverage are small and observed primarily in inpatient spending.

On March 6, Schaeffer Center Advisory Board Member, Robert Szczerba spoke at the premier health IT conference in the nation: The HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans.

Dr. Szczerba speech, titled How Aerospace Technology Can Help Transform Healthcare had an attendance of over 1200 people.  Dr. Szczerba’s company Lockheed Martin has defined aviation for 100 years. Now, the company is using engineering excellence, modeling and simulation, analytics, and systems integration to improve knowledge transfer and overall patient care.

Dr. Szczerba’s speech hit on key items that are pertinent to today’s understanding of Healthcare:

• Demonstrate how Lockheed Martin’s approach to healthcare can aid knowledge transfer through technology, training through simulation, and process improvement
• Display how training through virtual environments, simulation, and real-time scenario analysis sharpen medical providers’ skills
• Demonstrate the healthcare industry priority and the capability (through ICE STORM) of having an Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE), a clinical environment in which all medical devices are capable of being interconnected in a “plug-and-play configuration that would enable healthcare to be better managed and patient data to be better shared”

President Bill Clinton was in attendance, delivering the conferences’ Keynote address.

Dr. Bob Kocher, Schaeffer Center Senior Fellow and Advisory Board Member, will be speaking at our next Quintiles Seminar Series on Thursday, March 14^th.  His presentation titled, “What Happens Next: Implications of Health Reform on our Health System” will start at 3:30 and end at 5:00 p.m at the University Club.

Bob is the former Special Assistant to President Obama for Healthcare and Economic Policy and one of the shapers of the healthcare reform legislation.  This seminar will take place at the University Club in the Scriptorium (2^nd Floor).

Dr. Mark Schuster, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard MEdical School, will be coming to the Schaeffer Center on March 5 to speak about “Work, Family, Leave, and Health Care for Children.”

The Quintiles Seminar Series is hosted by Dana Goldman and takes place at our center.

We are now accepting applications for 2013- 2014 scholar positions. The mission of the USC RCMAR, the Minority Aging Health Economics Research Center, is to provide infrastructure and resources to increase the number, diversity, and academic success of researchers focusing on the health and economic well-being of minority elderly populations. We will offer talented junior investigators, known as RCMAR scholars, funding to pursue a pilot research project, and multidisciplinary mentoring and training.  Potential RCMAR scholars may come from disciplines including but not limited to economics, computer science, medicine, gerontology and social work.

Below you will find the Request For Application (RFA), with detailed information. Please send any recommended names and contact information directly to Julie Zissimopoulos or Dana Goldman or refer the potential applicant directly to the RFA.

The Minority Aging Health Economics Research Center’s, one page Letters of Intent (LOI) is due Monday March 4^th, 2013.  Letters will be reviewed on a rolling basis as they are submitted. The applicants selected will be asked to submit a full NIH proposal that will be due on Monday April 1^st, 2013.  Interested applicants should submit documents to: Julie Zissimopoulos, PhD., Co-Director of USC-RCMAR, Attn: Briana White brianawh@usc.edu.

Click here for application details

Dr. Huesch recently spoke at the Executive Committee meeting of the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative on approaches to improving hospital quality.  The CMQCC is a statewide data driven quality improvement organization that seeks to advance maternity care in California. Stakeholders in the Collaborative include state government, foundations, physician professional groups and numerous public and private health systems and universities.  Dr. Huesch addressed the Executive Committee on his AHRQ-funded research to improve awareness of hospital quality reports and drive consumer activation and decision-making on their preferred high quality providers of maternity care.”