AHRQ Views: Biden Administration Tackles Financial Strains on Healthcare Consumers

AHRQ Stats: Changes in Health Insurance Premiums, 2021-2022

Compared with 2021, insurance premiums in 2022 for private-sector employees increased 2.8 percent for single coverage, 2.1 percent for employee-plus-one coverage and 2.6 percent for family coverage. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #553, Trends in Health Insurance at Private Employers, 2008-2022.) 

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views: Biden Administration Tackles Financial Strains on Healthcare Consumers.
• Making Healthcare Safer IV Report Launched With Three Evidence Reviews.
• COVID-19 Surges Strained Hospitals, AHRQ Study Finds.
• Machine Learning No Better Than Traditional Models in Predicting Intensive Care Unit Fluid Overload.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Explore Careers at AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views: Biden Administration Tackles Financial Strains on Healthcare Consumers

The Biden administration’s efforts to address financial strains on healthcare consumers are the subject of a new blog post by AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A. Americans have long faced a healthcare affordability crisis. Between 2016 and 2020, Dr. Valdez notes, healthcare prices increased at roughly double the rate of inflation. At the root of these price increases are misaligned incentives across the healthcare ecosystem. A recent AHRQ study published in Health Affairs explores these issues and the pressures that can lead to prolonged medical debt and force some consumers to go without medical services. The study can help policymakers and the healthcare industry confront issues contributing to medical care's financial strain. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Making Healthcare Safer IV Report Launched With Three Evidence Reviews

New evidence reviews from AHRQ are available to help healthcare leaders prioritize and implement strategies to improve patient safety in three areas: telehealth, patient and family engagement and the use of report cards and outcome measures to improve surgical care. The reviews are part of the agency’s Making Healthcare Safer IV report, a continuous updating of patient safety harms and practices. First published in 2001, Making Healthcare Safer reports have served as consolidated information sources for healthcare providers, health system administrators, researchers and government agencies. In coming months, Making Healthcare Safer IV will provide evidence on 11 additional safety topics, including reducing adverse events related to anticoagulants, opioid stewardship and addressing fatigue and sleepiness of clinicians due to hours of service.

COVID-19 Surges Strained Hospitals, AHRQ Study Finds

Surges in COVID-19 that strained hospital emergency departments led to a decline in inpatient occupancy, an AHRQ study found. AHRQ researchers, writing in JAMA Health Forum, analyzed 2019 and 2020 data from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project and found that during weeks with low COVID-19 admission rates, inpatient occupancy decreased by 12.7 percent. However, during weeks with high COVID-19 admission rates, inpatient occupancy rates increased by 7.9 percent. Intensive care unit occupancy rates were even more affected, increasing by 67.8 percent during weeks with high COVID-19 admissions. During weeks with high COVID-19 admissions, occupancy declined for many service lines, with occupancy by surgical patients declining 43.1 percent early in the pandemic. The authors noted that these fluctuations in occupancy may have affected quality of care and hospital finances. They also noted that the results highlight the importance of policies that provided financial aid or deployed resources (including equipment and staff) to hospitals during the pandemic. Access the abstract.

Machine Learning No Better Than Traditional Models in Predicting Intensive Care Unit Fluid Overload

Machine learning seems to be no better than traditional regression modeling in predicting fluid overload for patients in the intensive care unit, an AHRQ-funded study found. Machine learning, also known as predictive analytics, is a field of study within artificial intelligence powered by the use of statistical algorithms. In the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers compared the ability of traditional regression techniques and different machine learning-based modeling approaches to identify clinically meaningful fluid overload predictors. Fluid overload is a frequent and unintended consequence of resuscitation in critically ill adults. Machine learning models have outperformed traditional regression models in a variety of settings but generated only a similar predictive power to traditional regression modeling to identify patients with fluid overload. Access the abstract.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Prescription opioid dose reductions and potential adverse events: a multi-site observational cohort study in diverse US health systems.
• Patient safety incidents in endoscopy: a human factors analysis of non-procedural significant harm incidents from the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS).
• Overnight stay in the emergency department and mortality in older patients.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

Explore Careers at AHRQ

Join the team that strives to improve healthcare for all Americans by investing in health systems research, creating strategies to support practice improvement and providing data and analytics to identify opportunities for improvement. Current vacancies include:

• Data Scientist, Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety/Division of Patient Safety Organizations. Application deadline: Dec. 8.
• Supervisory Health Scientist Administrator—Division Director, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement, Division of Practice Improvement. Application deadline: Dec. 15.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Implementation and evaluation of an electronic health record-integrated app for postpartum monitoring of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy using patient-contributed data collection. Dullabh P, Heaney-Huls KK, Chiao AB, et al. JAMIA Open 2023 Dec;6(4):ooad098. Epub 2023 Nov 14. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Preventable harm because of outpatient medication errors among children with leukemia and lymphoma: a multisite longitudinal assessment. Wong CI, Vannatta K, Gilleland Marchak J, et al. Cancer 2023 Apr 1;129(7):1064-74. Epub 2023 Jan 27. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Racial and ethnic disparities among patients hospitalized for acute cholangitis in the United States. Wang M, Wadhwani SI, Cullaro G, et al. J Clin Gastroenterol 2023 Aug 1;57(7):731-6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Determinants and outcomes associated with skilled nursing facility use after coronary artery bypass grafting: a statewide experience. Thompson MP, Stewart JW 2nd, Hou H, et al. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2023 Oct;16(10):e009639. Epub 2023 Sep 13. Access the abstract on PubMed®

Caregiver experiences navigating the diagnostic journey in a rapidly progressing dementia. Sideman AB, Gilissen J, Harrison KL, et al. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2023 Jul;36(4):282-94. Epub 2022 Nov 22. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Evaluating the comparability of patient-level social risk data extracted from electronic health records: a systematic scoping review. Linfield GH, Patel S, Ko HJ, et al. Health Informatics J 2023 Jul-Sep;29(3):14604582231200300. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Medicaid value-based payments and health care use for patients with mental illness. Lewis A, Howland RE, Horwitz LI, et al. JAMA Health Forum 2023 Sep;4(9):e233197. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Social determinants of health and parenting self-efficacy among mothers of preterm infants. Klawetter S, Weikel B, Roybal K, et al. J Soc Social Work Res 2023 Summer;14(2):411-29. Epub 2023 Jun 1. Access the abstract on PubMed®.