How neighborhoods shape life with diabetes
March 01, 2018
Dr. Rita Hamad, MD, faculty member at IHPS and assistant professor at UCSF, comments on a study of individuals with pre-existing disease or are at risk by living in poorer communities. These communities with lower employment, income and education have scant resources to support exercise and healthy... 
How much will that hospital procedure cost you? Depends where you go
February 22, 2018
How much will a knee replacement cost you? The unsatisfying answer is that it depends on where you go. In Minnesota, some patients were charged $6,186 for a knee replacement, while the same procedure cost others nearly eight times more — or $46,974. A report from the Minnesota Department of Health... California Improvement Network Announces New Partner Organizations
February 13, 2018
California Improvement Network Announces New Partner Organizations
Seventeen health care organizations including provider groups and coalitions, health plans, and quality improvement organizations, have been selected as partners for CIN. Collectively, these organizations serve or support more than... 
An ER visit, a $12,000 bill — and a health insurer that wouldn’t pay
February 08, 2018
New healthcare policies suggest a new and controversial strategy for reining in health care costs: asking patients to play a larger role in assessing their own medical condition — or pay a steep price.
Emergency room doctors and patients argue that these new policies can often deprive patients of... 
System-Level Influences on Overly Aggressive Treatments at the End of Life
February 06, 2018
Dzeng, Elizabeth, Daniel Dohan, et al.
Homing in on the Social: System-Level Influences on Overly Aggressive Treatments at the End of Life
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , 282 - 289
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2017.08.019
A good end-of-life experience... 