WorldWideScience

Sample records for claim database cost

  1. Musculoskeletal disorder costs and medical claim filing in the US retail trade sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Anasua; Leigh, J Paul

    2011-01-01

    The average costs of Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) and odds ratios for filing medical claims related to MSD were examined. The medical claims were identified by ICD 9 codes for four US Census regions within retail trade. Large private firms' medical claims data from Thomson Reuters Inc. MarketScan databases for the years 2003 through 2006 were used. Average costs were highest for claims related to lumbar region (ICD 9 Code: 724.02) and number of claims were largest for low back syndrome (ICD 9 Code: 724.2). Whereas the odds of filing an MSD claim did not vary greatly over time, average costs declined over time. The odds of filing claims rose with age and were higher for females and southerners than men and non-southerners. Total estimated national medical costs for MSDs within retail trade were $389 million (2007 USD).

  2. Drug usage patterns and treatment costs in newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus cases, 2007 vs 2012: findings from a large US healthcare claims database analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weng, W; Liang, Y; Kimball, E S; Hobbs, T; Kong, S; Sakurada, B; Bouchard, J

    2016-07-01

    Objective To explore trends in demographics, comorbidities, anti-diabetic drug usage, and healthcare utilization costs in patients with newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using a large US claims database. Methods For the years 2007 and 2012, Truven Health Marketscan Research Databases were used to identify adults with newly-diagnosed T2DM and continuous 12-month enrollment with prescription benefits. Variables examined included patient demographics, comorbidities, inpatient utilization patterns, healthcare costs (inpatient and outpatient), drug costs, and diabetes drug claim patterns. Results Despite an increase in the overall database population between 2007-2012, the incidence of newly-diagnosed T2DM decreased from 1.1% (2007) to 0.65% (2012). Hyperlipidemia and hypertension were the most common comorbidities and increased in prevalence from 2007 to 2012. In 2007, 48.3% of newly-diagnosed T2DM patients had no claims for diabetes medications, compared with 36.2% of patients in 2012. The use of a single oral anti-diabetic drug (OAD) was the most common diabetes medication-related claim (46.2% of patients in 2007; 56.7% of patients in 2012). Among OAD monotherapy users, metformin was the most commonly used and increased from 2007 (74.7% of OAD monotherapy users) to 2012 (90.8%). Decreases were observed for sulfonylureas (14.1% to 6.2%) and thiazolidinediones (7.3% to 0.6%). Insulin, predominantly basal insulin, was used by 3.9% of patients in 2007 and 5.3% of patients in 2012. Mean total annual healthcare costs increased from $13,744 in 2007 to $15,175 in 2012, driven largely by outpatient services, although costs in all individual categories of healthcare services (inpatient and outpatient) increased. Conversely, total drug costs per patient were lower in 2012 compared with 2007. Conclusions Despite a drop in the rate of newly-diagnosed T2DM from 2007 to 2012 in the US, increased total medical costs and comorbidities per individual patient suggest that

  3. Prevalence rates for depression by industry: a claims database analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wulsin, Lawson; Alterman, Toni; Timothy Bushnell, P; Li, Jia; Shen, Rui

    2014-11-01

    To estimate and interpret differences in depression prevalence rates among industries, using a large, group medical claims database. Depression cases were identified by ICD-9 diagnosis code in a population of 214,413 individuals employed during 2002-2005 by employers based in western Pennsylvania. Data were provided by Highmark, Inc. (Pittsburgh and Camp Hill, PA). Rates were adjusted for age, gender, and employee share of health care costs. National industry measures of psychological distress, work stress, and physical activity at work were also compiled from other data sources. Rates for clinical depression in 55 industries ranged from 6.9 to 16.2 %, (population rate = 10.45 %). Industries with the highest rates tended to be those which, on the national level, require frequent or difficult interactions with the public or clients, and have high levels of stress and low levels of physical activity. Additional research is needed to help identify industries with relatively high rates of depression in other regions and on the national level, and to determine whether these differences are due in part to specific work stress exposures and physical inactivity at work. Claims database analyses may provide a cost-effective way to identify priorities for depression treatment and prevention in the workplace.

  4. Prevalence rates for depression by industry: a claims database analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alterman, Toni; Bushnell, P. Timothy; Li, Jia; Shen, Rui

    2015-01-01

    Purpose To estimate and interpret differences in depression prevalence rates among industries, using a large, group medical claims database. Methods Depression cases were identified by ICD-9 diagnosis code in a population of 214,413 individuals employed during 2002–2005 by employers based in western Pennsylvania. Data were provided by Highmark, Inc. (Pittsburgh and Camp Hill, PA). Rates were adjusted for age, gender, and employee share of health care costs. National industry measures of psychological distress, work stress, and physical activity at work were also compiled from other data sources. Results Rates for clinical depression in 55 industries ranged from 6.9 to 16.2 %, (population rate = 10.45 %). Industries with the highest rates tended to be those which, on the national level, require frequent or difficult interactions with the public or clients, and have high levels of stress and low levels of physical activity. Conclusions Additional research is needed to help identify industries with relatively high rates of depression in other regions and on the national level, and to determine whether these differences are due in part to specific work stress exposures and physical inactivity at work. Clinical significance Claims database analyses may provide a cost-effective way to identify priorities for depression treatment and prevention in the workplace. PMID:24907896

  5. Characteristics and healthcare utilisation patterns of high-cost beneficiaries in the Netherlands: a cross-sectional claims database study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wammes, J.J.G.; Tanke, M.A.C.; Jonkers, W.; Westert, G.P.; Wees, P.J. van der; Jeurissen, P.P.T.

    2017-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To determine medical needs, demographic characteristics and healthcare utilisation patterns of the top 1% and top 2%-5% high-cost beneficiaries in the Netherlands. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using 1 year claims data. We broke down high-cost beneficiaries by demographics, the most

  6. Claims-based definition of death in Japanese claims database: validity and implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ooba, Nobuhiro; Setoguchi, Soko; Ando, Takashi; Sato, Tsugumichi; Yamaguchi, Takuhiro; Mochizuki, Mayumi; Kubota, Kiyoshi

    2013-01-01

    For the pending National Claims Database in Japan, researchers will not have access to death information in the enrollment files. We developed and evaluated a claims-based definition of death. We used healthcare claims and enrollment data between January 2005 and August 2009 for 195,193 beneficiaries aged 20 to 74 in 3 private health insurance unions. We developed claims-based definitions of death using discharge or disease status and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). We calculated sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values (PPVs) using the enrollment data as a gold standard in the overall population and subgroups divided by demographic and other factors. We also assessed bias and precision in two example studies where an outcome was death. The definition based on the combination of discharge/disease status and CCI provided moderate sensitivity (around 60%) and high specificity (99.99%) and high PPVs (94.8%). In most subgroups, sensitivity of the preferred definition was also around 60% but varied from 28 to 91%. In an example study comparing death rates between two anticancer drug classes, the claims-based definition provided valid and precise hazard ratios (HRs). In another example study comparing two classes of anti-depressants, the HR with the claims-based definition was biased and had lower precision than that with the gold standard definition. The claims-based definitions of death developed in this study had high specificity and PPVs while sensitivity was around 60%. The definitions will be useful in future studies when used with attention to the possible fluctuation of sensitivity in some subpopulations.

  7. Claims-Based Definition of Death in Japanese Claims Database: Validity and Implications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ooba, Nobuhiro; Setoguchi, Soko; Ando, Takashi; Sato, Tsugumichi; Yamaguchi, Takuhiro; Mochizuki, Mayumi; Kubota, Kiyoshi

    2013-01-01

    Background For the pending National Claims Database in Japan, researchers will not have access to death information in the enrollment files. We developed and evaluated a claims-based definition of death. Methodology/Principal Findings We used healthcare claims and enrollment data between January 2005 and August 2009 for 195,193 beneficiaries aged 20 to 74 in 3 private health insurance unions. We developed claims-based definitions of death using discharge or disease status and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). We calculated sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values (PPVs) using the enrollment data as a gold standard in the overall population and subgroups divided by demographic and other factors. We also assessed bias and precision in two example studies where an outcome was death. The definition based on the combination of discharge/disease status and CCI provided moderate sensitivity (around 60%) and high specificity (99.99%) and high PPVs (94.8%). In most subgroups, sensitivity of the preferred definition was also around 60% but varied from 28 to 91%. In an example study comparing death rates between two anticancer drug classes, the claims-based definition provided valid and precise hazard ratios (HRs). In another example study comparing two classes of anti-depressants, the HR with the claims-based definition was biased and had lower precision than that with the gold standard definition. Conclusions/Significance The claims-based definitions of death developed in this study had high specificity and PPVs while sensitivity was around 60%. The definitions will be useful in future studies when used with attention to the possible fluctuation of sensitivity in some subpopulations. PMID:23741526

  8. Economic cost and epidemiological characteristics of patients with fibromyalgia claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Rebecca L; Birnbaum, Howard G; Morley, Melissa A; Sisitsky, Tamar; Greenberg, Paul E; Claxton, Ami J

    2003-06-01

    Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by widespread pain that can lead to significant patient disability, complex management decisions for physicians, and economic burden on society. We investigated the total costs of FM in an employer population. Administrative claims data of a Fortune 100 manufacturer were used to quantify direct (i.e., medical and pharmaceutical claims) and indirect (i.e., disability claims and imputed absenteeism) costs associated with FM. A total of 4699 patients with at least one FM claim between 1996 and 1998 were contrasted with a 10% random sample of the overall beneficiary population. Employee-only subsets of both samples also were drawn. Medical utilization, receipt of prescription drugs, and annual total costs were proportionately similar yet significantly greater among FM claimants than the overall sample (all p < 0.0001). Total annual costs for FM claimants were $5945 versus $2486 for the typical beneficiary (p < 0.0001). Six percent of these costs were attributable to FM-specific claims. The prevalence of disability was twice as high among FM employees than overall employees (p < 0.0001). For every dollar spent on FM-specific claims, the employer spent another $57 to $143 on additional direct and indirect costs. Hidden costs of disability and comorbidities greatly increase the true burden of FM. Regardless of the clinical understanding of FM, when a claim for FM is present, considerable costs are involved. Findings suggest that within the management of FM there may be large cost-offset opportunities for reductions in patient, physician, and employer burdens.

  9. Database and Registry Research in Orthopaedic Surgery: Part I: Claims-Based Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pugely, Andrew J; Martin, Christopher T; Harwood, Jared; Ong, Kevin L; Bozic, Kevin J; Callaghan, John J

    2015-08-05

    The use of large-scale national databases for observational research in orthopaedic surgery has grown substantially in the last decade, and the data sets can be grossly categorized as either administrative claims or clinical registries. Administrative claims data comprise the billing records associated with the delivery of health-care services. Orthopaedic researchers have used both government and private claims to describe temporal trends, geographic variation, disparities, complications, outcomes, and resource utilization associated with both musculoskeletal disease and treatment. Medicare claims comprise one of the most robust data sets used to perform orthopaedic research, with >45 million beneficiaries. The U.S. government, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, often uses these data to drive changes in health policy. Private claims data used in orthopaedic research often comprise more heterogeneous patient demographic samples, but allow longitudinal analysis similar to that offered by Medicare claims. Discharge databases, such as the U.S. National Inpatient Sample, provide a wide national sampling of inpatient hospital stays from all payers and allow analysis of associated adverse events and resource utilization. Administrative claims data benefit from the high patient numbers obtained through a majority of hospitals. Using claims, it is possible to follow patients longitudinally throughout encounters irrespective of the location of the institution delivering health care. Some disadvantages include lack of precision of ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision) coding schemes. Much of these data are expensive to purchase, complicated to organize, and labor-intensive to manipulate--often requiring trained specialists for analysis. Given the changing health-care environment, it is likely that databases will provide valuable information that has the potential to influence clinical practice improvement and health policy for

  10. The economic impact of GERD and PUD: examination of direct and indirect costs using a large integrated employer claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joish, Vijay N; Donaldson, Gary; Stockdale, William; Oderda, Gary M; Crawley, Joseph; Sasane, Rahul; Joshua-Gotlib, Sandra; Brixner, Diana I

    2005-04-01

    The objective of this study was to examine the relationship of work loss associated with gastro- the relationship of work loss associated with gastro- the relationship of work loss associated with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and peptic ulcer disease (GERD) and peptic ulcer disease (PUD) in a large population of employed individuals in the United States (US) and quantify the individuals in the United States (US) and quantify the economic impact of these diseases to the employer. A proprietary database that contained work place absence, disability and workers' compensation data in addition to prescription drug and medical claims was used to answer the objectives. Employees with a medical claim with an ICD-9 code for GERD or PUD were identified from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2000. A cohort of controls was identified for the same time period using the method of frequency matching on age, gender, industry type, occupational status, and employment status. Work absence rates and health care costs were compared between the groups after adjusting for demo graphic, and employment differences using analysis of covariance models. There were significantly lower (p rate of adjusted all-cause absenteeism and sickness-related absenteeism were observed between the disease groups versus the controls. In particular, controls had an average of 1.2 to 1.6 days and 0.4 to 0.6 lower all-cause and sickness-related absenteeism compared to the disease groups. The incremental economic impact projected to a hypothetical employed population was estimated to be $3441 for GERD, $1374 for PUD, and $4803 for GERD + PUD per employee per year compared to employees without these diseases. Direct medical cost and work absence in employees with GERD, PUD and GERD + PUD represent a significant burden to employees and employers.

  11. The prevalence and ingredient cost of chronic comorbidity in the Irish elderly population with medication treated type 2 diabetes: A retrospective cross-sectional study using a national pharmacy claims database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O’Shea Miriam

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Comorbidity in patients with diabetes is associated with poorer health and increased cost. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and ingredient cost of comorbidity in patients ≥ 65 years with and without medication treated type 2 diabetes using a national pharmacy claims database. Methods The Irish Health Service Executive Primary Care Reimbursement Service pharmacy claims database, which includes all prescribing to individuals covered by the General Medical Services scheme, was used to identify the study population (≥ 65 years. Patients with medication treated type 2 diabetes (T2DM were identified using the prescription of oral anti-hyperglycaemic agents alone or in combination with insulin as a proxy for disease diagnosis. The prevalence and ingredient prescribing cost of treated chronic comorbidity in the study population with and without medication treated T2DM were ascertained using a modified version of the RxRiskV index, a prescription based comorbidity index. The association between T2DM and comorbid conditions was assessed using logistic regression adjusting for age and sex. Bootstrapping was used to ascertain the mean annual ingredient cost of treated comorbidity. Statistical significance at p  Results In 2010, 43165 of 445180 GMS eligible individuals (9.7% were identified as having received medication for T2DM. The median number of comorbid conditions was significantly higher in those with T2DM compared to without (median 5 vs. 3 respectively; p  Conclusions Individuals with T2DM were more likely to have a higher number of treated comorbid conditions than those without and this was associated with higher ingredient costs. This has important policy and economic consequences for the planning and provision of future health services in Ireland, given the expected increase in T2DM and other chronic conditions.

  12. Technical evaluation of methods for identifying chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in healthcare claims databases

    OpenAIRE

    Weycker Derek; Sofrygin Oleg; Seefeld Kim; Deeter Robert G; Legg Jason; Edelsberg John

    2013-01-01

    Abstract Background Healthcare claims databases have been used in several studies to characterize the risk and burden of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN) and effectiveness of colony-stimulating factors against FN. The accuracy of methods previously used to identify FN in such databases has not been formally evaluated. Methods Data comprised linked electronic medical records from Geisinger Health System and healthcare claims data from Geisinger Health Plan. Subjects were classifie...

  13. Analysis of medication-related malpractice claims: causes, preventability, and costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rothschild, Jeffrey M; Federico, Frank A; Gandhi, Tejal K; Kaushal, Rainu; Williams, Deborah H; Bates, David W

    2002-11-25

    Adverse drug events (ADEs) may lead to serious injury and may result in malpractice claims. While ADEs resulting in claims are not representative of all ADEs, such data provide a useful resource for studying ADEs. Therefore, we conducted a review of medication-related malpractice claims to study their frequency, nature, and costs and to assess the human factor failures associated with preventable ADEs. We also assessed the potential benefits of proved effective ADE prevention strategies on ADE claims prevention. We conducted a retrospective analysis of a New England malpractice insurance company claims records from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 1999. Cases were electronically screened for possible ADEs and followed up by independent review of abstracts by 2 physician reviewers (T.K.G. and R.K.). Additional in-depth claims file reviews identified potential human factor failures associated with ADEs. Adverse drug events represented 6.3% (129/2040) of claims. Adverse drug events were judged preventable in 73% (n = 94) of the cases and were nearly evenly divided between outpatient and inpatient settings. The most frequently involved medication classes were antibiotics, antidepressants or antipsychotics, cardiovascular drugs, and anticoagulants. Among these ADEs, 46% were life threatening or fatal. System deficiencies and performance errors were the most frequent cause of preventable ADEs. The mean costs of defending malpractice claims due to ADEs were comparable for nonpreventable inpatient and outpatient ADEs and preventable outpatient ADEs (mean, $64,700-74,200), but costs were considerably greater for preventable inpatient ADEs (mean, $376,500). Adverse drug events associated with malpractice claims were often severe, costly, and preventable, and about half occurred in outpatients. Many interventions could potentially have prevented ADEs, with error proofing and process standardization covering the greatest proportion of events.

  14. Health risk factors as predictors of workers' compensation claim occurrence and cost

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwatka, Natalie V; Atherly, Adam; Dally, Miranda J; Fang, Hai; vS Brockbank, Claire; Tenney, Liliana; Goetzel, Ron Z; Jinnett, Kimberly; Witter, Roxana; Reynolds, Stephen; McMillen, James; Newman, Lee S

    2017-01-01

    Objective The objective of this study was to examine the predictive relationships between employee health risk factors (HRFs) and workers' compensation (WC) claim occurrence and costs. Methods Logistic regression and generalised linear models were used to estimate the predictive association between HRFs and claim occurrence and cost among a cohort of 16 926 employees from 314 large, medium and small businesses across multiple industries. First, unadjusted (HRFs only) models were estimated, and second, adjusted (HRFs plus demographic and work organisation variables) were estimated. Results Unadjusted models demonstrated that several HRFs were predictive of WC claim occurrence and cost. After adjusting for demographic and work organisation differences between employees, many of the relationships previously established did not achieve statistical significance. Stress was the only HRF to display a consistent relationship with claim occurrence, though the type of stress mattered. Stress at work was marginally predictive of a higher odds of incurring a WC claim (p<0.10). Stress at home and stress over finances were predictive of higher and lower costs of claims, respectively (p<0.05). Conclusions The unadjusted model results indicate that HRFs are predictive of future WC claims. However, the disparate findings between unadjusted and adjusted models indicate that future research is needed to examine the multilevel relationship between employee demographics, organisational factors, HRFs and WC claims. PMID:27530688

  15. Technical evaluation of methods for identifying chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in healthcare claims databases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weycker Derek

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Healthcare claims databases have been used in several studies to characterize the risk and burden of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN and effectiveness of colony-stimulating factors against FN. The accuracy of methods previously used to identify FN in such databases has not been formally evaluated. Methods Data comprised linked electronic medical records from Geisinger Health System and healthcare claims data from Geisinger Health Plan. Subjects were classified into subgroups based on whether or not they were hospitalized for FN per the presumptive “gold standard” (ANC 9/L, and body temperature ≥38.3°C or receipt of antibiotics and claims-based definition (diagnosis codes for neutropenia, fever, and/or infection. Accuracy was evaluated principally based on positive predictive value (PPV and sensitivity. Results Among 357 study subjects, 82 (23% met the gold standard for hospitalized FN. For the claims-based definition including diagnosis codes for neutropenia plus fever in any position (n=28, PPV was 100% and sensitivity was 34% (95% CI: 24–45. For the definition including neutropenia in the primary position (n=54, PPV was 87% (78–95 and sensitivity was 57% (46–68. For the definition including neutropenia in any position (n=71, PPV was 77% (68–87 and sensitivity was 67% (56–77. Conclusions Patients hospitalized for chemotherapy-induced FN can be identified in healthcare claims databases--with an acceptable level of mis-classification--using diagnosis codes for neutropenia, or neutropenia plus fever.

  16. Technical evaluation of methods for identifying chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia in healthcare claims databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weycker, Derek; Sofrygin, Oleg; Seefeld, Kim; Deeter, Robert G; Legg, Jason; Edelsberg, John

    2013-02-13

    Healthcare claims databases have been used in several studies to characterize the risk and burden of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN) and effectiveness of colony-stimulating factors against FN. The accuracy of methods previously used to identify FN in such databases has not been formally evaluated. Data comprised linked electronic medical records from Geisinger Health System and healthcare claims data from Geisinger Health Plan. Subjects were classified into subgroups based on whether or not they were hospitalized for FN per the presumptive "gold standard" (ANC based definition (diagnosis codes for neutropenia, fever, and/or infection). Accuracy was evaluated principally based on positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity. Among 357 study subjects, 82 (23%) met the gold standard for hospitalized FN. For the claims-based definition including diagnosis codes for neutropenia plus fever in any position (n=28), PPV was 100% and sensitivity was 34% (95% CI: 24-45). For the definition including neutropenia in the primary position (n=54), PPV was 87% (78-95) and sensitivity was 57% (46-68). For the definition including neutropenia in any position (n=71), PPV was 77% (68-87) and sensitivity was 67% (56-77). Patients hospitalized for chemotherapy-induced FN can be identified in healthcare claims databases--with an acceptable level of mis-classification--using diagnosis codes for neutropenia, or neutropenia plus fever.

  17. The cost of respirable coal mine dust: an analysis based on new black lung claims

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Page, S.J.; Organiscak, J.A.; Lichtman, K. [US Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of the Interior

    1997-12-01

    The article provides summation of the monetary costs of new compensation claims associated with levels of unmitigated respirable coal mine dust and the resultant lung disease known as black lung and compares these compensation costs to the cost of dust control technology research by the US Bureau of Mines. It presents an analysis of these expenditures and projects these costs over the period from 1991 to 2010, based on projected future new claims which are assumed to be approved for federal and state benefit payment. Since current and future dust control research efforts cannot change past claim histories, a valid comparison of future research spending with other incurred costs must examine only the cost of future new claims. The bias of old claim costs was eliminated in this analysis by examining only claims since 1980. The results estimate that for an expected 339 new approved claims annually from 1991 to 2010, the Federal Trust Fund costs will be 985 million dollars. During this same period, state black lung compensation is estimated to be 18.2 billion dollars. The Bureau of Mines dust control research expenditures are estimated as 0.44% of the projected future black lung-related costs. 9 refs., 4 figs., 3 tabs.

  18. Effect of a health system's medical error disclosure program on gastroenterology-related claims rates and costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Megan A; Elmunzer, B Joseph; Scheiman, James M

    2014-04-01

    In 2001, the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) implemented a novel medical error disclosure program. This study analyzes the effect of this program on gastroenterology (GI)-related claims and costs. This was a review of claims in the UMHS Risk Management Database (1990-2010), naming a gastroenterologist. Claims were classified according to pre-determined categories. Claims data, including incident date, date of resolution, and total liability dollars, were reviewed. Mean total liability incurred per claim in the pre- and post-implementation eras was compared. Patient encounter data from the Division of Gastroenterology was also reviewed in order to benchmark claims data with changes in clinical volume. There were 238,911 GI encounters in the pre-implementation era and 411,944 in the post-implementation era. A total of 66 encounters resulted in claims: 38 in the pre-implementation era and 28 in the post-implementation era. Of the total number of claims, 15.2% alleged delay in diagnosis/misdiagnosis, 42.4% related to a procedure, and 42.4% involved improper management, treatment, or monitoring. The reduction in the proportion of encounters resulting in claims was statistically significant (P=0.001), as was the reduction in time to claim resolution (1,000 vs. 460 days) (P<0.0001). There was also a reduction in the mean total liability per claim ($167,309 pre vs. $81,107 post, 95% confidence interval: 33682.5-300936.2 pre vs. 1687.8-160526.7 post). Implementation of a novel medical error disclosure program, promoting transparency and quality improvement, not only decreased the number of GI-related claims per patient encounter, but also dramatically shortened the time to claim resolution.

  19. Treatment patterns and healthcare resource utilization and costs in heavy menstrual bleeding: a Japanese claims database analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akiyama, Sayako; Tanaka, Erika; Cristeau, Olivier; Onishi, Yoshie; Osuga, Yutaka

    2018-06-01

    Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is a highly prevalent condition, characterized by excessive menstrual blood loss and cramping, that interferes with activities of daily life. The aim of this study was to investigate treatment patterns in HMB in Japan, and to assess healthcare resource utilization and costs among women newly-diagnosed with the condition. This study retrospectively analyzed health insurance data available in the Japan Medical Data Center (JMDC) database on women aged 18-49 years who were newly-diagnosed with primary or secondary HMB. Treatment patterns were analyzed, and healthcare utilization and costs were evaluated and compared to matched controls. The study included a total of 635 patients, 210 with primary HMB and 425 with secondary HMB. In the primary HMB cohort, 60.0% of patients received one or more pharmacological or surgical treatments, compared with 76.2% in the secondary HMB cohort. The most commonly prescribed medications in all patients were hemostatic agents (28.7%), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (12.1%), and low-dose estrogen progestins (LEPs) (10.1%). After adjustment for patient baseline characteristics, healthcare costs were 1.93-times higher in primary HMB cases (p < .0001) and 4.44-times higher in secondary HMB cases (p < .0001) vs healthy controls. Outpatient care was the main cost driver. The main limitations of this study are related to its retrospective nature, and the fact that only reimbursed medications were captured in the source database. A substantial proportion of HMB patients did not receive the recommended treatments. Healthcare costs were considerably increased in the presence of an HMB diagnosis.

  20. 45 CFR 95.631 - Cost identification for purpose of FFP claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... INSURANCE PROGRAMS) Automatic Data Processing Equipment and Services-Conditions for Federal Financial Participation (FFP) Federal Financial Participation in Costs of Adp Acquisitions § 95.631 Cost identification... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Cost identification for purpose of FFP claims. 95...

  1. ClaimAssociationService

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Veterans Affairs — Retrieves and updates a veteranÆs claim status and claim-rating association (claim association for current rating) from the Corporate database for a claim selected...

  2. Removal costs and claims under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, R.E.

    1993-01-01

    The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), enacted on August 18, 1990, changed the nature of federal response to oil spills and substantially increased the remedies available to those damaged by oil spills. Prior to OPA 90, the authority for federal oil spill response was found in section 311 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), and the funding for federal responses was provided through a revolving fund established under section 311(k). OPA 90 modified section 311 to authorize the President to open-quotes direct and monitor all Federal, State, and private actions to remove a dischargeclose quotes of oil. OPA 90 also authorized the use of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF) for federal removal costs, among other uses, thereby significantly increasing the funding available for federal response activities. The effect of OPA 90 is evolving. There are more cases, more removal costs, and more efforts to recover those costs from responsible parties. There are provisions for compensation for claims but relatively few claims so far. It is expected that the next two years will see substantial increases in the number of claims

  3. Costs by industry and diagnosis among musculoskeletal claims in a state workers compensation system: 1999-2004.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunning, Kari K; Davis, Kermit G; Cook, Chad; Kotowski, Susan E; Hamrick, Chris; Jewell, Gregory; Lockey, James

    2010-03-01

    Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a tremendous burden on industry in the United States. However, there is limited understanding of the unique issues relating to specific industry sectors, specifically the frequency and costs of different MSDs. Claim data from 1999 to 2004 from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation were analyzed as a function of industry sector (NAICS industry-sector categories) and anatomical region (ICD-9 codes). Almost 50% of the claims were lumbar spine (26.9%) or hand/wrist (21.7%). The majority of claims were from manufacturing (25.1%) and service (32.8%) industries. The industries with the highest average costs per claim were transportation, warehouse, and utilities and construction. Across industries, the highest costs per claim were consistently for the lumbar spine, shoulder, and cervical spine body regions. This study provides insight into the severity (i.e., medical and indemnity costs) of MSDs across multiple industries, providing data for prioritizing of resources for research and interventions. 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  4. Strategy for a transparent, accessible, and sustainable national claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelburd, Robin

    2015-03-01

    The article outlines the strategy employed by FAIR Health, Inc, an independent nonprofit, to maintain a national database of over 18 billion private health insurance claims to support consumer education, payer and provider operations, policy makers, and researchers with standard and customized data sets on an economically self-sufficient basis. It explains how FAIR Health conducts all operations in-house, including data collection, security, validation, information organization, product creation, and transmission, with a commitment to objectivity and reliability in data and data products. It also describes the data elements available to researchers and the diverse studies that FAIR Health data facilitate.

  5. Sport-related concussions in New Zealand: a review of 10 years of Accident Compensation Corporation moderate to severe claims and costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Doug; Gissane, Conor; Brughelli, Matt; Hume, Patria A; Harawira, Joseph

    2014-05-01

    This paper provides an overview of the epidemiology of sport-related concussion and associated costs in New Zealand requiring medical treatment from 2001 to 2011 in seven sports codes. A retrospective review of injury entitlement claims by seven sports from 2001 to 2011. Data were analyzed by sporting code, age, ethnicity, gender and year of competition for total and moderate-to-severe (MSC) Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims and costs. A total of 20,902 claims costing $NZD 16,546,026 were recorded over the study period of which 1330 (6.4%) were MSC claims. The mean yearly number and costs of MSC claims were 133 ± 36 and $1,303,942 ± 378,949. Rugby union had the highest number of MSC claims per year (38; 95% CI 36-41 per 1000 MSC claims). New Zealand Māori recorded the highest total ($6,000,759) and mean cost ($21,120) per MSC claim. Although MSC injury claims were only 6.4% of total claims, they accounted for 79.1% of total costs indicating that although the majority of sport-related concussions may be minor in severity, the related economic costs associated with more serious sport-related concussion can be high. The finding that rugby union recorded the most MSC claims in the current study was not unexpected. Of concern is that rugby league recorded a low number of MSC claims but the highest mean cost per claim. Due to the high mean cost per concussion, and the high total and mean cost for New Zealand Māori, further investigation is warranted. Copyright © 2013 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Initial Experience With Tofacitinib in Clinical Practice: Treatment Patterns and Costs of Tofacitinib Administered as Monotherapy or in Combination With Conventional Synthetic DMARDs in 2 US Health Care Claims Databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harnett, James; Curtis, Jeffrey R; Gerber, Robert; Gruben, David; Koenig, Andrew

    2016-06-01

    Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Tofacitinib can be administered as a monotherapy or in combination with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). This study describes RA patients' characteristics, treatment patterns, and costs for those initiating tofacitinib treatment as monotherapy or combination therapy, using US claims data from clinical practice. A retrospective cohort analysis of patients aged ≥18 years with RA (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision code 714.xx) and with ≥1 tofacitinib claim in the Truven Marketscan (TM) or the Optum Clinformatics (OC) database. Index was defined as the first tofacitinib fill date (November 2012-June 2014). Patients were continuously enrolled for ≥12 months before and after index. Adherence was assessed using the proportion of days covered (PDC) and medication possession ratio (MPR). Persistence was evaluated using a 1.5× days' supply gap or switch. All-cause and RA-related costs in the 12-month pre- and post-index periods were evaluated. Unadjusted and adjusted analyses were conducted on data on treatment patterns and costs stratified by monotherapy status. A total of 337 (TM) and 118 (OC) tofacitinib patients met the selection criteria; 52.2% (TM) and 50.8% (OC) received monotherapy and 83.7% (TM) and 76.3% (OC) had pre-index biologic DMARD experience. Twelve-month mean PDC values were 0.56 (TM) and 0.53 (OC), and 12-month mean MPR was 0.84 (TM) and 0.80 (OC), with persistence of 140.0 (TM) and 124.6 (OC) days. Between 12-month pre- and post-index periods, mean (SD) 12-month RA-related medical costs decreased by $5784 ($31,832) in TM and $6103 ($25,897) in OC (both, P tofacitinib knowledge base and will enable informed clinical and policy decision making based on valuable datasets independent of randomized controlled trials. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Imaginary Worlds: Modeled claims for cost-effectiveness published in PharmacoEconomics January 2015 to December 2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul C Langley

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this review is to assess whether or not economic evaluation studies published in PharmacoEconomics in 2015 meet the standards of normal science. Two questions are key to the assessment: (i did the authors attempt to generate testable claims as to the impact of the pharmaceutical product in health care systems and (ii did the authors suggest how the claims might be evaluated? A total of 31 studies were evaluated, including 14 research articles, 8 systematic reviews and 9 reviews. Although the majority of the studies met recommended standards for cost-effectiveness analysis, none met the standards of normal science. They were best categorized as imaginary worlds or thought experiments. The reader has no idea whether the claims for the products are right or even if they were wrong. Journal editors have two options: (i require authors to submit cost-effectiveness claims that are evaluable with a protocol suggesting how the claim may be evaluated or (ii continue to publish non-evaluable cost-effectiveness claims but insist authors indicate that the claims are non-evaluable. Conflict of Interest None Type: Commentary

  8. Generic Database Cost Models for Hierarchical Memory Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Manegold, Stefan; Boncz, Peter; Kersten, Martin

    2002-01-01

    textabstractAccurate prediction of operator execution time is a prerequisite for database query optimization. Although extensively studied for conventional disk-based DBMSs, cost modeling in main-memory DBMSs is still an open issue. Recent database research has demonstrated that memory access is more and more becoming a significant---if not the major---cost component of database operations. If used properly, fast but small cache memories---usually organized in cascading hierarchy between CPU ...

  9. Occupational management in the workplace and impact on injury claims, duration, and cost: a prospective longitudinal cohort

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lemstra ME

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Mark E Lemstra Alliance Health Medical Clinic, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada Abstract: Few workplaces have prospectively reviewed workplace and worker issues simultaneously and assessed their impact on Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB claims. In January of 2014, each worker in a large workplace in Saskatchewan, Canada, was prospectively followed for 1 year to determine factors that impact injury claim incidence, recovery, and costs. In total, 207 out of 245 workers agreed to complete the baseline survey (84.5%. In 2014, 82.5% of workers had self-reported pain, but only 35.5% submitted a WCB claim. Binary logistic regression was used to compare those with pain who did not submit a WCB injury claim to those with pain who did initiate a WCB claim. Independent risk factors associated with WCB claim incidence included depressed mood (odds ratio [OR] =2.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.44–9.78 and lower job satisfaction (OR =1.70, 95% CI 1.08–10.68. Higher disability duration was independently associated with higher depressed mood (OR =1.60, 95% CI 1.05–4.11 and poor recovery expectation (OR =1.31, 95% CI 1.01–5.78. Higher cost disability claims were independently associated with higher depressed mood (OR =1.51, 95% CI 1.07–6.87 and pain catastrophizing (OR =1.11, 95% CI 1.02–8.11. Self-reported pain, physically assessed injury severity, and measured ergonomic risk of workstation did not significantly predict injury claim incidence, duration, or costs. In January 2015, the workplace implemented a new occupational prevention and management program. The injury incidence rate ratio reduced by 58% from 2014 to 2015 (IRR =1.58, 95% CI =1.28–1.94. The ratio for disability duration reduced by 139% from 2014 to 2015 (RR =2.39, 95% CI =2.16–2.63. Costs reduced from $114,149.07 to $56,528.14 per year. In summary, WCB claims are complex. Recognizing that nonphysical factors, such as depressed mood, influence injury claim incidence, recovery, and

  10. The effectiveness of insurer-supported safety and health engineering controls in reducing workers' compensation claims and costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wurzelbacher, Steven J; Bertke, Stephen J; Lampl, Michael P; Bushnell, P Timothy; Meyers, Alysha R; Robins, David C; Al-Tarawneh, Ibraheem S

    2014-12-01

    This study evaluated the effectiveness of a program in which a workers' compensation (WC) insurer provided matching funds to insured employers to implement safety/health engineering controls. Pre- and post-intervention WC metrics were compiled for the employees designated as affected by the interventions within 468 employers for interventions occurring from 2003 to 2009. Poisson, two-part, and linear regression models with repeated measures were used to evaluate differences in pre- and post-data, controlling for time trends independent of the interventions. For affected employees, total WC claim frequency rates (both medical-only and lost-time claims) decreased 66%, lost-time WC claim frequency rates decreased 78%, WC paid cost per employee decreased 81%, and WC geometric mean paid claim cost decreased 30% post-intervention. Reductions varied by employer size, specific industry, and intervention type. The insurer-supported safety/health engineering control program was effective in reducing WC claims and costs for affected employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. Distribution and drivers of costs in type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with oral hypoglycemic agents: a retrospective claims data analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bron, Morgan; Guerin, Annie; Latremouille-Viau, Dominick; Ionescu-Ittu, Raluca; Viswanathan, Prabhakar; Lopez, Claudia; Wu, Eric Q

    2014-09-01

    To describe the distribution of costs and to identify the drivers of high costs among adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) receiving oral hypoglycemic agents. T2DM patients using oral hypoglycemic agents and having HbA1c test data were identified from the Truven MarketScan databases of Commercial and Medicare Supplemental insurance claims (2004-2010). All-cause and diabetes-related annual direct healthcare costs were measured and reported by cost components. The 25% most costly patients in the study sample were defined as high-cost patients. Drivers of high costs were identified in multivariate logistic regressions. Total 1-year all-cause costs for the 4104 study patients were $55,599,311 (mean cost per patient = $13,548). Diabetes-related costs accounted for 33.8% of all-cause costs (mean cost per patient = $4583). Medical service costs accounted for the majority of all-cause and diabetes-related total costs (63.7% and 59.5%, respectively), with a minority of patients incurring >80% of these costs (23.5% and 14.7%, respectively). Within the medical claims, inpatient admission for diabetes-complications was the strongest cost driver for both all-cause (OR = 13.5, 95% CI = 8.1-23.6) and diabetes-related costs (OR = 9.7, 95% CI = 6.3-15.1), with macrovascular complications accounting for most inpatient admissions. Other cost drivers included heavier hypoglycemic agent use, diabetes complications, and chronic diseases. The study reports a conservative estimate for the relative share of diabetes-related costs relative to total cost. The findings of this study apply mainly to T2DM patients under 65 years of age. Among the T2DM patients receiving oral hypoglycemic agents, 23.5% of patients incurred 80% of the all-cause healthcare costs, with these costs being driven by inpatient admissions, complications of diabetes, and chronic diseases. Interventions targeting inpatient admissions and/or complications of diabetes may contribute to the decrease of the

  12. Comparison of medical costs and healthcare resource utilization of post-menopausal women with HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer receiving everolimus-based therapy or chemotherapy: a retrospective claims database analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Nanxin; Hao, Yanni; Koo, Valerie; Fang, Anna; Peeples, Miranda; Kageleiry, Andrew; Wu, Eric Q; Guérin, Annie

    2016-01-01

    To analyze medical costs and healthcare resource utilization (HRU) associated with everolimus-based therapy or chemotherapy among post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive, human-epidermal-growth-factor-receptor-2-negative (HR+/HER2-) metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Patients with HR+/HER2- mBC who discontinued a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor and began a new line of treatment with everolimus-based therapy or chemotherapy (index therapy/index date) between July 20, 2012 and April 30, 2014 were identified from two large claims databases. All-cause, BC-related, and adverse event (AE)-related medical costs (in 2014 USD) and all-cause HRU per patient per month (PPPM) were analyzed for both treatment groups across patients' first four lines of therapies for mBC. Adjusted differences in costs and HRU between the everolimus and chemotherapy treatment group were estimated pooling all lines and using multivariable generalized linear models, accounting for difference in patient characteristics. A total of 3298 patients were included: 902 everolimus-treated patients and 2636 chemotherapy-treated patients. Compared to chemotherapy, everolimus was associated with significantly lower all-cause (adjusted mean difference = $3455, p well as significantly lower HRU (emergency room incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.83; inpatient IRR = 0.74; inpatient days IRR = 0.65; outpatient IRR = 0.71; BC-related outpatient IRR = 0.57; all p chemotherapy.

  13. Counting the cost of negligence in neurosurgery: Lessons to be learned from 10 years of claims in the NHS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamdan, Alhafidz; Strachan, Roger D; Nath, Fredrick; Coulter, Ian C

    2015-04-01

    Despite substantial progress in modernising neurosurgery, the specialty still tops the list of medico-legal claims. Understanding the factors associated with negligence claims is vital if we are to identify areas of underperformance and subsequently improve patient safety. Here we provide data on trends in neurosurgical negligence claims over a 10-year period in England. We used data provided by the National Health Service Litigation Authority to analyse negligence claims related to neurosurgery from the financial years 2002/2003 to 2011/2012. Using the abstracts provided, we extracted information pertaining to the underlying pathology, injury severity, nature of misadventure and claim value. Over the 10-year period, the annual number of claims increased significantly. In total, there were 794 negligence claims (range 50-117/year); of the 613 closed cases, 405 (66.1%) were successful. The total cost related to claims during the 10 years was £65.7 million, with a mean claim per successful case of £0.16 million (total damages, defence and claimant costs of £45.1, £6.36 and £14.3 million, respectively). Claims related to emergency cases were more costly compared to those of elective cases (£209,327 vs. £112,627; P=0.002). Spinal cases represented the most frequently litigated procedures (350; 44.1% of total), inadequate surgical performance the most common misadventure (231; 29.1%) and fatality the commonest injury implicated in claims (102; 12.8%). Negligence claims related to wrong-site surgery and cauda equina syndrome were frequently successful (26/26; 100% and 14/16; 87.5% of closed cases, respectively). In England, the number of neurosurgical negligence claims is increasing, the financial cost substantial, and the burden significant. Lessons to be learned from the study are of paramount importance to reduce future cases of negligence and improve patient care.

  14. Decreasing incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the United States, 2007-2012: Epidemiologic findings from a large US claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weng, Wayne; Liang, Yuanjie; Kimball, Edward S; Hobbs, Todd; Kong, Sheldon X; Sakurada, Brian; Bouchard, Jonathan

    2016-07-01

    To explore epidemiological trends in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) in the US between 2007 and 2012 using a large US claims database, with a particular focus on demographics, prevalence, newly-diagnosed cases, and comorbidities. Truven Health MarketScan® Databases were used to identify patients with claims evidence of T2D in the years 2007 and 2012. Newly-diagnosed T2D was characterized by an absence of any T2D claims or related drug claims for 6months preceding the index claim. Demographic and comorbidity characteristics of the prevalent and new-onset T2D groups were compared and analyzed descriptively for trends over time. The overall prevalence of T2D remained stable from 2007 (1.24 million cases/15.07 million enrolled; 8.2%) to 2012 (2.04 million cases/24.52 million enrolled; 8.3%), while the percentage of newly-diagnosed cases fell dramatically from 2007 (152,252 cases; 1.1%) to 2012 (147,011 cases; 0.65%). The mean age of patients with prevalent T2D was similar in 2007 (60.6y) and 2012 (60.0y), while the mean age of newly-diagnosed T2D patients decreased by 3years from 2007 (57.7y) to 2012 (54.8y). Hypertension and hyperlipidemia were the most common comorbidities, evident in 50-75% of T2D patients, and increased markedly from 2007 to 2012 in both prevalent and new-onset T2D populations. Cardiovascular disease decreased slightly in prevalent (-0.9%) and new-onset (-2.8%) cases. This large US health claims database analysis suggests stabilization in prevalence and declining incidence of T2D over a recent 5-year period, a downward shift in age at T2D diagnosis, but increases in several comorbidities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Generic Database Cost Models for Hierarchical Memory Systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S. Manegold (Stefan); P.A. Boncz (Peter); M.L. Kersten (Martin)

    2002-01-01

    textabstractAccurate prediction of operator execution time is a prerequisite for database query optimization. Although extensively studied for conventional disk-based DBMSs, cost modeling in main-memory DBMSs is still an open issue. Recent database research has demonstrated that memory access is

  16. Evaluation of the treatment patterns and economic burden of dysmenorrhea in Japanese women, using a claims database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akiyama, Sayako; Tanaka, Erika; Cristeau, Olivier; Onishi, Yoshie; Osuga, Yutaka

    2017-01-01

    Purpose This study aimed to describe treatment patterns and estimate health care resource utilization and associated costs among Japanese women with dysmenorrhea, using a claims database. Methods This was a retrospective analysis using health insurance data from the Japan Medical Data Center, assessing female patients aged 18–49 years with newly diagnosed primary or secondary dysmenorrhea. Treatment pattern analyses focused on hormonal medications, analgesics, hemostatic agents, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and gynecological surgeries. Data were collected on health care resource utilization and costs associated with medications, imaging procedures, and inpatient and outpatient care in both patients and matched controls. Results The analysis included 6,315 women with dysmenorrhea (3,441 primary; 2,874 secondary). The most commonly prescribed initial therapies were low-dose estrogen progestins (LEPs, 37.7%) and TCM (30.0%), with substantial differences between primary (LEPs: 27.4%, TCM: 38.8%) and secondary (LEPs: 50.2%, TCM: 19.5%) dysmenorrhea cohorts. Surgery was conducted in dysmenorrhea had significantly higher mean total health care costs compared to controls within the 1-year period following diagnosis (Case-primary: 191,680 JPY [1,916 USD]; secondary: 246,488 JPY [2,465 USD], Control-primary: 83,615 JPY [836 USD]; secondary: 90,711 JPY [907 USD]) (pdysmenorrhea cohorts, respectively, compared with matched controls, (both pdysmenorrhea patients compared to controls (pdysmenorrhea and those treated by internal medicine physicians. Total annual health care costs were approximately 2–3 times higher in patients with dysmenorrhea compared to women without the condition. PMID:28579813

  17. Report: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Complied With Most Federal Requirements but Claimed Some Unallowable Costs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Report #17-P-0184, April 24, 2017. The vast majority of costs claimed by NWIFC for cooperative agreements PA00J32201 and PA00J91201 were reasonable, allocable and allowable. Only $87,963 of indirect costs reimbursed to SSIT was questioned.

  18. The New Politics of US Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration and the Emergence of All-Payer Claims Databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rocco, Philip; Kelly, Andrew S; Béland, Daniel; Kinane, Michael

    2017-02-01

    Prices are a significant driver of health care cost in the United States. Existing research on the politics of health system reform has emphasized the limited nature of policy entrepreneurs' efforts at solving the problem of rising prices through direct regulation at the state level. Yet this literature fails to account for how change agents in the states gradually reconfigured the politics of prices, forging new, transparency-based policy instruments called all-payer claims databases (APCDs), which are designed to empower consumers, purchasers, and states to make informed market and policy choices. Drawing on pragmatist institutional theory, this article shows how APCDs emerged as the dominant model for reforming health care prices. While APCD advocates faced significant institutional barriers to policy change, we show how they reconfigured existing ideas, tactical repertoires, and legal-technical infrastructures to develop a politically and technologically robust reform. Our analysis has important implications for theories of how change agents overcome structural barriers to health reform. Copyright © 2017 by Duke University Press.

  19. Analysis of clinical negligence claims following tonsillectomy in England 1995 to 2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathew, Rajeev; Asimacopoulos, Eleni; Walker, David; Gutierrez, Tatiana; Valentine, Peter; Pitkin, Lisa

    2012-05-01

    We determined the characteristics of medical negligence claims following tonsillectomy. Claims relating to tonsillectomy between 1995 and 2010 were obtained from the National Health Service Litigation Authority database. The number of open and closed claims was determined, and data were analyzed for primary injury claimed, outcome of claim, and associated costs. Over 15 years, there were 40 claims of clinical negligence related to tonsillectomy, representing 7.7% of all claims in otolaryngology. There were 34 closed claims, of which 32 (94%) resulted in payment of damages. Postoperative bleeding was the most common injury, with delayed recognition and treatment of bleeding alleged in most cases. Nasopharyngeal regurgitation as a result of soft palate fistulas or excessive tissue resection was the next-commonest cause of a claim. The other injuries claimed included dentoalveolar injury, bums, tonsillar remnants, and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. Inadequate informed consent was claimed in 5 cases. Clinical negligence claims following tonsillectomy have a high success rate. Although postoperative bleeding is the most common cause of negligence claims, a significant proportion of claims are due to rare complications of surgery. Informed consent should be tailored to the individual patient and should include a discussion of common and serious complications.

  20. Possibility of Database Research as a Means of Pharmacovigilance in Japan Based on a Comparison with Sertraline Postmarketing Surveillance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirano, Yoko; Asami, Yuko; Kuribayashi, Kazuhiko; Kitazaki, Shigeru; Yamamoto, Yuji; Fujimoto, Yoko

    2018-05-01

    Many pharmacoepidemiologic studies using large-scale databases have recently been utilized to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs in Western countries. In Japan, however, conventional methodology has been applied to postmarketing surveillance (PMS) to collect safety and effectiveness information on new drugs to meet regulatory requirements. Conventional PMS entails enormous costs and resources despite being an uncontrolled observational study method. This study is aimed at examining the possibility of database research as a more efficient pharmacovigilance approach by comparing a health care claims database and PMS with regard to the characteristics and safety profiles of sertraline-prescribed patients. The characteristics of sertraline-prescribed patients recorded in a large-scale Japanese health insurance claims database developed by MinaCare Co. Ltd. were scanned and compared with the PMS results. We also explored the possibility of detecting signals indicative of adverse reactions based on the claims database by using sequence symmetry analysis. Diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and hyperthyroidism served as exploratory events, and their detection criteria for the claims database were reported by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency in Japan. Most of the characteristics of sertraline-prescribed patients in the claims database did not differ markedly from those in the PMS. There was no tendency for higher risks of the exploratory events after exposure to sertraline, and this was consistent with sertraline's known safety profile. Our results support the concept of using database research as a cost-effective pharmacovigilance tool that is free of selection bias . Further investigation using database research is required to confirm our preliminary observations. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  1. One-year risk of psychiatric hospitalization and associated treatment costs in bipolar disorder treated with atypical antipsychotics: a retrospective claims database analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pikalov Andrei

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background This study compared 1-year risk of psychiatric hospitalization and treatment costs in commercially insured patients with bipolar disorder, treated with aripiprazole, ziprasidone, olanzapine, quetiapine or risperidone. Methods This was a retrospective propensity score-matched cohort study using the Ingenix Lab/Rx integrated insurance claims dataset. Patients with bipolar disorder and 180 days of pre-index enrollment without antipsychotic exposure who received atypical antipsychotic agents were followed for up to 12 months following the initial antipsychotic prescription. The primary analysis used Cox proportional hazards regression to evaluate time-dependent risk of hospitalization, adjusting for age, sex and pre-index hospitalization. Generalized gamma regression compared post-index costs between treatment groups. Results Compared to aripiprazole, ziprasidone, olanzapine and quetiapine had higher risks for hospitalization (hazard ratio 1.96, 1.55 and 1.56, respectively; p Conclusions In commercially insured adults with bipolar disorder followed for 1 year after initiation of atypical antipsychotics, treatment with aripiprazole was associated with a lower risk of psychiatric hospitalization than ziprasidone, quetiapine, olanzapine and risperidone, although this did not reach significance with the latter. Aripiprazole was also associated with significantly lower total healthcare costs than quetiapine, but not the other comparators.

  2. Negligence claims following non-union and malunion of long bone fractures: An analysis of 15 years of data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metcalfe, C W; Harrison, W D; Nayagam, S; Narayan, B

    2016-10-01

    Non-unions and malunions are recognised to be complications of the treatment of long bone fractures. No previous work has looked at the implications of these complications from a medicolegal perspective. A complete database of litigation claims in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery was obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority. Two separate modalities of the treatment of long bone fractures were examined i) non-union and ii) acquired deformity. The type of complaint, whether defended or not, and costs were analysed. There were claims of which 97 related to non-union and 32 related to postoperative limb deformity. The total cost was £8.2 million over a 15-year period in England and Wales. Femoral and tibial non-unions were more expensive particularly if they resulted in amputation. Rotational deformity cost nearly twice as much as angulation deformities. The cosmetic appearances of rotational malalignment and amputation results in higher compensation; this reinforces an outward perception of outcome as being more important than harmful effects. Notwithstanding the limitations of this database, there are clinical lessons to be gained from these litigation claims. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Do falls and falls-injuries in hospital indicate negligent care -- and how big is the risk? A retrospective analysis of the NHS Litigation Authority Database of clinical negligence claims, resulting from falls in hospitals in England 1995 to 2006.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliver, D; Killick, S; Even, T; Willmott, M

    2008-12-01

    Accidental falls are very common in older hospital patients -- accounting for 32% of reported adult patient safety incidents in UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals and occurring with similar frequency in settings internationally. In countries where the population is ageing, and care is provided in inpatient settings, falls prevention is therefore a significant and growing risk-management issue. Falls may lead to a variety of harms and costs, are cited in formal complaints and can lead to claims of clinical negligence. The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) negligence claims database provides a novel opportunity to systematically analyse such (falls-related) claims made against NHS organisations in England and to learn lessons for risk-management systems and claims recording. To describe the circumstances and injuries most frequently cited in falls-related claims; to investigate any association between the financial impact (total cost), and the circumstances of or injuries resulting from falls in "closed" claims; to draw lessons for falls risk management and for future data capture on falls incidents and resulting claims analysis; to identify priorities for future research. A keyword search was run on the NHSLA claims database for April 1995 to February 2006, to identify all claims apparently relating to falls. Claims were excluded from further analysis if, on scrutiny, they had not resulted from falls, or if they were still "open" (ie, unresolved). From the narrative descriptions of closed claims (ie, those for which the financial outcome was known), we developed categories of "principal" and "secondary" injury/harm and "principal" and "contributory" circumstance of falls. For each category, it was determined whether cases had resulted in payment and what total payments (damages and costs) were awarded. The proportions of contribution-specific injuries or circumstances to the number of cases and to the overall costs incurred were compared in order to identify

  4. An Evaluation of Algorithms for Identifying Metastatic Breast, Lung, or Colorectal Cancer in Administrative Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whyte, Joanna L; Engel-Nitz, Nicole M; Teitelbaum, April; Gomez Rey, Gabriel; Kallich, Joel D

    2015-07-01

    Administrative health care claims data are used for epidemiologic, health services, and outcomes cancer research and thus play a significant role in policy. Cancer stage, which is often a major driver of cost and clinical outcomes, is not typically included in claims data. Evaluate algorithms used in a dataset of cancer patients to identify patients with metastatic breast (BC), lung (LC), or colorectal (CRC) cancer using claims data. Clinical data on BC, LC, or CRC patients (between January 1, 2007 and March 31, 2010) were linked to a health care claims database. Inclusion required health plan enrollment ≥3 months before initial cancer diagnosis date. Algorithms were used in the claims database to identify patients' disease status, which was compared with physician-reported metastases. Generic and tumor-specific algorithms were evaluated using ICD-9 codes, varying diagnosis time frames, and including/excluding other tumors. Positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity, and specificity were assessed. The linked databases included 14,480 patients; of whom, 32%, 17%, and 14.2% had metastatic BC, LC, and CRC, respectively, at diagnosis and met inclusion criteria. Nontumor-specific algorithms had lower specificity than tumor-specific algorithms. Tumor-specific algorithms' sensitivity and specificity were 53% and 99% for BC, 55% and 85% for LC, and 59% and 98% for CRC, respectively. Algorithms to distinguish metastatic BC, LC, and CRC from locally advanced disease should use tumor-specific primary cancer codes with 2 claims for the specific primary cancer >30-42 days apart to reduce misclassification. These performed best overall in specificity, positive predictive values, and overall accuracy to identify metastatic cancer in a health care claims database.

  5. Medical Care Cost Recovery National Database (MCCR NDB)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Veterans Affairs — The Medical Care Cost Recovery National Database (MCCR NDB) provides a repository of summary Medical Care Collections Fund (MCCF) billing and collection information...

  6. Report: Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners – Unallowable Costs Claimed Under EPA Grant XP98237601

    Science.gov (United States)

    Report #08-2-0226, August 6, 2008. The grantee claimed $2,385,634 for pre-award costs under Grant XP98237601 that were incurred prior to the grant award and thus were unallowable under the grant administrative conditions and OMB Circular A-87.

  7. Medical research using governments' health claims databases: with or without patients' consent?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Feng-Jen; Junod, Valérie

    2018-03-01

    Taking advantage of its single-payer, universal insurance system, Taiwan has leveraged its exhaustive database of health claims data for research purposes. Researchers can apply to receive access to pseudonymized (coded) medical data about insured patients, notably their diagnoses, health status and treatments. In view of the strict safeguards implemented, the Taiwanese government considers that this research use does not require patients' consent (either in the form of an opt-in or in the form of an opt-out). A group of non-governmental organizations has challenged this view in the Taiwanese Courts, but to no avail. The present article reviews the arguments both against and in favor of patients' consent for re-use of their data in research. It concludes that offering patients an opt-out would be appropriate as it would best balance the important interests at issue.

  8. Cost Differences Between Open and Minimally Invasive Surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitch, Kathryn; Engel, Tyler; Bochner, Andrew

    2015-09-01

    To analyze the cost difference between minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and open surgery from a commercial payer perspective for colectomy, ventral hernia repair, thoracic resection (resection of the lung), and hysterectomy. A retrospective claims data analysis was conducted using the 2011 and 2012 Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounter Database. Study eligibility criteria included age 18-64 years, pharmacy coverage, ≥ 1 month of eligibility in 2012, and a claim coded with 1 of the 4 surgical procedures of interest; the index year was 2012. Average allowed facility and professional costs were calculated during inpatient stay (or day of surgery for outpatient hysterectomy) and the 30 days after discharge for MIS vs open surgery. Cost difference was compared after adjusting for presence of cancer, geographic region, and risk profile (age, gender, and comorbidities). In total, 46,386 cases in the 2012 MarketScan database represented one of the surgeries of interest. The difference in average allowed surgical procedure cost (facility and professional) between open surgery vs adjusted MIS was $10,204 for colectomy; $3,721, ventral hernia repair; $12,989, thoracic resection; and $1,174, noncancer hysterectomy (P average allowed cost in the 30 days after surgery between open surgery vs adjusted MIS was $1,494 for colectomy, $1,320 for ventral hernia repair, negative $711 for thoracic resection, and negative $425 for noncancer hysterectomy (P costs than open surgery for all 4 analyzed surgeries.

  9. Repeat workers' compensation claims: risk factors, costs and work disability

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background The objective of our study was to describe factors associated with repeat workers' compensation claims and to compare the work disability arising in workers with single and multiple compensation claims. Methods All initial injury claims lodged by persons of working age during a five year period (1996 to 2000) and any repeat claims were extracted from workers' compensation administrative data in the state of Victoria, Australia. Groups of workers with single and multiple claims were identified. Descriptive analysis of claims by affliction, bodily location, industry segment, occupation, employer and workplace was undertaken. Survival analysis determined the impact of these variables on the time between the claims. The economic impact and duration of work incapacity associated with initial and repeat claims was compared between groups. Results 37% of persons with an initial claim lodged a second claim. This group contained a significantly greater proportion of males, were younger and more likely to be employed in manual occupations and high-risk industries than those with single claims. 78% of repeat claims were for a second injury. Duration between the claims was shortest when the working conditions had not changed. The initial claims of repeat claimants resulted in significantly (p claims. Conclusions A substantial proportion of injured workers experience a second occupational injury or disease. These workers pose a greater economic burden than those with single claims, and also experience a substantially greater cumulative period of work disability. There is potential to reduce the social, health and economic burden of workplace injury by enacting prevention programs targeted at these workers. PMID:21696637

  10. Treatment patterns and health care resource utilization associated with dalfampridine extended release in multiple sclerosis: a retrospective claims database analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guo A

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Amy Guo,1 Michael Grabner,2 Swetha Rao Palli,2 Jessica Elder,1 Matthew Sidovar,1 Peter Aupperle,1 Stephen Krieger3 1Acorda Therapeutics Inc., Ardsley, New York, NY, USA; 2HealthCore Inc., Wilmington, DE, USA; 3Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for MS, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Background: Although previous studies have demonstrated the clinical benefits of dalfampridine extended release (D-ER tablets in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS, there are limited real-world data on D-ER utilization and associated outcomes in patients with MS. Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate treatment patterns, budget impact, and health care resource utilization (HRU associated with D-ER use in a real-world setting. Methods: A retrospective claims database analysis was conducted using the HealthCore Integrated Research DatabaseSM. Adherence (measured by medication possession ratio, or [MPR] and persistence (measured by days between initial D-ER claim and discontinuation or end of follow-up were evaluated over 1-year follow-up. Budget impact was calculated as cost per member per month (PMPM over the available follow-up period. D-ER and control cohorts were propensity-score matched on baseline demographics, comorbidities, and MS-related resource utilization to compare walking-impairment-related HRU over follow-up. Results: Of the 2,138 MS patients identified, 1,200 were not treated with D-ER (control and 938 were treated with D-ER. Patients were aged 51 years on average and 74% female. Approximately 82.6% of D-ER patients were adherent (MPR >80%. The estimated budget impact range of D-ER was $0.014–$0.026 PMPM. Propensity-score-matched D-ER and controls yielded 479 patients in each cohort. Postmatching comparison showed that the D-ER cohort was associated with fewer physician (21.5% vs 62.4%, P<0.0001 and other outpatient visits (22.8% vs 51.4%, P<0.0001 over the 12-month follow-up. Changes in HRU from follow

  11. Generic database cost models for hierarchical memory systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S. Manegold (Stefan); P.A. Boncz (Peter); M.L. Kersten (Martin)

    2002-01-01

    textabstractAccurate prediction of operator execution time is a prerequisite fordatabase query optimization. Although extensively studied for conventionaldisk-based DBMSs, cost modeling in main-memory DBMSs is still an openissue. Recent database research has demonstrated that memory access ismore

  12. Disruptions in Liver Function among Cancer Patients and Patients Treated with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibiting Drugs: Comparisons of Two Population-Based Databases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Landis, S. H.

    2013-01-01

    Liver toxicity is a recognized adverse event associated with small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Electronic Medical Record (EMR) databases offer the most precise data to investigate the rate of liver function test (LFT) elevations; however, they can be limited in sample size and costly to access and analyze. Health insurance claims databases often contain larger samples sizes but may lack key health information. We evaluated the feasibility of utilizing a large claims database to calculate incidence rates (IRs) of LFT elevations among a general cohort of cancer patients and a cohort of patients treated with TKIs by comparing the results to a “gold standard” oncology-specific EMR database. IRs for the TKI cohorts were very similar between the two databases; however, IRs were higher in the EMR database for the cancer cohorts. Possible explanations for these differences include lack of specificity when defining a cancer case, poor capture of laboratory data, or inaccurate assessment of person-time in the insurance claims database. This study suggests that insurance claims data may provide reliable results when investigating liver toxicities associated with oncology drug exposure; however, there are limitations when assessing laboratory outcomes for cohorts defined solely by disease status.

  13. Neonatal hypoglycaemia: learning from claims

    OpenAIRE

    Hawdon, Jane M; Beer, Jeanette; Sharp, Deborah; Upton, Michele

    2016-01-01

    Objectives Neonatal hypoglycaemia is a potential cause of neonatal morbidity, and on rare but tragic occasions causes long-term neurodevelopmental harm with consequent emotional and practical costs for the family. The organisational cost to the NHS includes the cost of successful litigation claims. The purpose of the review was to identify themes that could alert clinicians to common pitfalls and thus improve patient safety. Design The NHS Litigation Authority (NHS LA) Claims Management Syste...

  14. Warranty claim analysis considering human factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Shaomin

    2011-01-01

    Warranty claims are not always due to product failures. They can also be caused by two types of human factors. On the one hand, consumers might claim warranty due to misuse and/or failures caused by various human factors. Such claims might account for more than 10% of all reported claims. On the other hand, consumers might not be bothered to claim warranty for failed items that are still under warranty, or they may claim warranty after they have experienced several intermittent failures. These two types of human factors can affect warranty claim costs. However, research in this area has received rather little attention. In this paper, we propose three models to estimate the expected warranty cost when the two types of human factors are included. We consider two types of failures: intermittent and fatal failures, which might result in different claim patterns. Consumers might report claims after a fatal failure has occurred, and upon intermittent failures they might report claims after a number of failures have occurred. Numerical examples are given to validate the results derived.

  15. Analysis of the evidence-practice gap to facilitate proper medical care for the elderly: investigation, using databases, of utilization measures for National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakayama, Takeo; Imanaka, Yuichi; Okuno, Yasushi; Kato, Genta; Kuroda, Tomohiro; Goto, Rei; Tanaka, Shiro; Tamura, Hiroshi; Fukuhara, Shunichi; Fukuma, Shingo; Muto, Manabu; Yanagita, Motoko; Yamamoto, Yosuke

    2017-06-06

    As Japan becomes a super-aging society, presentation of the best ways to provide medical care for the elderly, and the direction of that care, are important national issues. Elderly people have multi-morbidity with numerous medical conditions and use many medical resources for complex treatment patterns. This increases the likelihood of inappropriate medical practices and an evidence-practice gap. The present study aimed to: derive findings that are applicable to policy from an elucidation of the actual state of medical care for the elderly; establish a foundation for the utilization of National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB), and present measures for the utilization of existing databases in parallel with NDB validation.Cross-sectional and retrospective cohort studies were conducted using the NDB built by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, private health insurance claims databases, and the Kyoto University Hospital database (including related hospitals). Medical practices (drug prescription, interventional procedures, testing) related to four issues-potential inappropriate medication, cancer therapy, chronic kidney disease treatment, and end-of-life care-will be described. The relationships between these issues and clinical outcomes (death, initiation of dialysis and other adverse events) will be evaluated, if possible.

  16. The Problem with the Delta Cost Project Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaquette, Ozan; Parra, Edna

    2016-01-01

    The Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) collects data on Title IV institutions. The Delta Cost Project (DCP) integrated data from multiple IPEDS survey components into a public-use longitudinal dataset. The DCP Database was the basis for dozens of journal articles and a series of influential policy reports. Unfortunately, a flaw in…

  17. Data scan. With access to a newly available trove of private insurers' claims data, new institute aims to study what's driving spiraling healthcare costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Melanie

    2011-09-26

    A new research initiative aims to delve into private-insurer claims data to study utilization and what's driving healthcare costs. The Health Care Cost Institute will help researchers, who have been limited to Medicare data or limited private claims. "We're optimistic. We have nothing to hide here," says Michael Richards, left, of Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center.

  18. Changing Job Satisfaction, Absenteeism, and Healthcare Claims Costs In a Hospital Culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newsome, Misty; Pearsall, Cynthia; Ryan, Teresa; Starlin, Pamela

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: Fairfield Medical Center is a 222-bed community hospital located in Lancaster, Ohio. Organizational leadership chose to invest in the Transforming Stress Workshop, a 6-hour workshop with a 2-hour follow-up workshop, in order to improve the well-being of its staff and physicians. Special thought and consideration were given to being able to sustain any benefits and/or improvements long-term. As a result, strategies were developed to integrate the program into our culture. Methods: Four staff members from a variety of disciplines were selected and sent to HeartMath Train-the-Trainer to gain proficiency in HeartMath methodology and tools, expanding their duties to deliver the classes. Biweekly workshops were offered from August 2007 through December 2010, educating a total of 975 employees, or 48% of the staff. Other tactics providing a sustainable program included senior leadership support and championing, management team training, positive employee comments published internally, use of tools in committee and department meetings, incorporation into orientation and on-boarding processes, part of major initiative roll-outs, element in clinical ladder, expansion to include Transforming Team Workshops, sharing of Participant and Organizational Quality Assessment-Revised data, a lead HeartMath instructor who provides consulting to other organizations, provision of classes to local educators, and open workshops for employee family members. Results: Three metrics were selected to measure the success of the program: employee satisfaction, absenteeism rates, and healthcare claims cost. Statistically significant cultural and financial return on investment were demonstrated. Employees who received HeartMath training experienced a 2:1 savings on healthcare claims as compared to employees who had not received training. Employee Opinion Survey results demonstrated that employees who had HeartMath training had higher overall satisfaction scores than those who had not

  19. 32 CFR 842.32 - Claims not payable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... cost of it. The claim file must show clear intent to defraud. A mere mistake is not a fraud. (o) It is.... These claims may be payable through Accounting and Finance as a travel expense. (z) It is a cost to...

  20. Analysis of 11 years of clinical negligence claims in esophagogastric cancer in England.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ratnasingham, K; Stroud, L; Knight, J; Preston, S R; Sultan, J

    2017-04-01

    In the National Health Service (NHS), clinical negligence claims and associated compensations are constantly rising. The aim of this study is to identify the size, trends, and causes of litigations claims in relation to esophagogastric (EG) cancer in the NHS. Data requests were submitted to the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) for the period of January 2003 to December 2013. Data were reviewed, categorized clinically, and analyzed in terms of causes and costs behind claims. In this time period, there were 163 claims identified from the NHSLA database. Ninety-five (58.3%) claims were successful with a pay out of £6.25 million. An increasing overall claim frequency and success rate were found over the last few years. Majority of the claims were from gastric cancer 84 (88.4%). The commonest cause of complaint in successful claims was delay or failure in diagnosis (21.1%) and treatment (17.9%). There were only 10.5% successful intraoperative claims, of which 50% were due to unnecessary or additional procedures. The frequency and success rates of malpractice claims in EG cancer are rising. The failure or delay in diagnosing and treatment in EG malignancy are the common cause for successful litigation claims. The findings further reinforce the need to improve early diagnosis. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  1. Evaluation of Real-World Experience with Tofacitinib Compared with Adalimumab, Etanercept, and Abatacept in RA Patients with 1 Previous Biologic DMARD: Data from a U.S. Administrative Claims Database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harnett, James; Gerber, Robert; Gruben, David; Koenig, Andrew S; Chen, Connie

    2016-12-01

    Real-world data comparing tofacitinib with biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) are limited. To compare characteristics, treatment patterns, and costs of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving tofacitinib versus the most common bDMARDs (adalimumab [ADA], etanercept [ETN], and abatacept [ABA]) following a single bDMARD in a U.S. administrative claims database. This study was a retrospective cohort analysis of patients aged ≥ 18 years with an RA diagnosis (ICD-9-CM codes 714.0x-714.4x; 714.81) and 1 previous bDMARD filling ≥ 1 tofacitinib or bDMARD claim in the Truven MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental claims databases (November 1, 2012-October 31, 2014). Monotherapy was defined as absence of conventional synthetic DMARDs within 90 days post-index. Persistence was evaluated using a 60-day gap. Adherence was assessed using proportion of days covered (PDC). RA-related total, pharmacy, and medical costs were evaluated in the 12-month pre- and post-index periods. Treatment patterns and costs were adjusted using linear models including a common set of clinically relevant variables of interest (e.g., previous RA treatments), which were assessed separately using t-tests and chi-squared tests. Overall, 392 patients initiated tofacitinib; 178 patients initiated ADA; 118 patients initiated ETN; and 191 patients initiated ABA. Tofacitinib patients were older versus ADA patients (P = 0.0153) and had a lower proportion of Medicare supplemental patients versus ABA patients (P = 0.0095). Twelve-month pre-index bDMARD use was greater in tofacitinib patients (77.6%) versus bDMARD cohorts (47.6%-59.6%). Tofacitinib patients had greater 12-month pre-index RA-related total costs versus bDMARD cohorts (all P 0.10) proportion of patients were persistent with tofacitinib (42.6%) versus ADA (37.6%), ETN (42.4%), and ABA (43.5%). Mean PDC was 0.55 for tofacitinib versus 0.57 (ADA), 0.59 (ETN), and 0.44 (ABA; P = 0.0003). Adjusted analyses

  2. Frequency and cost of claims by injury type from a state workers' compensation fund from 1998 through 2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mroz, Tracy M; Carlini, Anthony R; Archer, Kristin R; Wegener, Stephen T; Hoolachan, Jordan I; Stiers, William; Shore, Rebecca A; Castillo, Renan C

    2014-06-01

    To determine which work-related injuries are the most frequent and costly. Secondary analysis of workers' compensation claims data. Data were provided by a large, Maryland workers' compensation insurer from 1998 through 2008. Not applicable. None. For 45 injury types, the number of claims and compensation amount was calculated for total compensation and for medical and indemnity compensation separately. Back and knee injuries were the most frequently occurring single injury types, whereas heart attack and occupational disease were the most expensive in terms of mean compensation. When taking into account both the frequency and cost of injury (mean cost × number occurrences), back, knee, and shoulder injuries were the most expensive single injury types. Successful prevention and management of back, knee, and shoulder injuries could lead to a substantial reduction in the burden associated with work-related injuries. Copyright © 2014 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Comparison of Cloud backup performance and costs in Oracle database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aljaž Zrnec

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 21 false false false SL X-NONE X-NONE Current practice of backing up data is based on using backup tapes and remote locations for storing data. Nowadays, with the advent of cloud computing a new concept of database backup emerges. The paper presents the possibility of making backup copies of data in the cloud. We are mainly focused on performance and economic issues of making backups in the cloud in comparison to traditional backups. We tested the performance and overall costs of making backup copies of data in Oracle database using Amazon S3 and EC2 cloud services. The costs estimation was performed on the basis of the prices published on Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 sites.

  4. Multi-faceted case management: reducing compensation costs of musculoskeletal work injuries in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iles, Ross Anthony; Wyatt, M; Pransky, G

    2012-12-01

    This study aimed to determine whether a multi-faceted model of management of work related musculoskeletal disorders reduced compensation claim costs and days of compensation for injured workers. An intervention including early reporting, employee centred case management and removal of barriers to return to work was instituted in 16 selected companies with a combined remuneration over $337 million. Outcomes were evaluated by an administrative dataset from the Victorian WorkCover Authority database. A 'quasi experimental' pre-post design was employed with 492 matched companies without the intervention used as a control group and an average of 21 months of post-intervention follow-up. Primary outcomes were average number of days of compensation and average cost of claims. Secondary outcomes were total medical costs and weekly benefits paid. Information on 3,312 claims was analysed. In companies where the intervention was introduced the average cost of claims was reduced from $6,019 to $3,913 (estimated difference $2,329, 95 % CI $1,318-$3,340) and the number of days of compensation decreased from 33.5 to 14.1 (HR 0.77, 95 % CI 0.67-0.88). Medical costs and weekly benefits costs were also lower after the intervention (p costs were noted across industry types, injury location and most employer sizes. The model of claims management investigated was effective in reducing the number of days of compensation, total claim costs, total medical costs and the amount paid in weekly benefits. Further research should investigate whether the intervention improves non-financial outcomes in the return to work process.

  5. 76 FR 60031 - Notice of Order: Revisions to Enterprise Public Use Database Incorporating High-Cost Single...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-28

    ... single-family matrix in FHFA's Public Use Database (PUDB) to include data fields for the high-cost single... Use Database Incorporating High-Cost Single-Family Securitized Loan Data Fields and Technical Data... amended, it is necessary to revise the single-family matrix of FHFA's Public Use Database (PUDB) by adding...

  6. Costs of conservative management of early-stage prostate cancer compared to radical prostatectomy–a claims data analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alina Brandes

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Due to widespread PSA testing incidence rates of localized prostate cancer increase but curative treatment is often not required. Overtreatment imposes a substantial economic burden on health care systems. We compared the direct medical costs of conservative management and radical therapy for the management of early-stage prostate cancer in routine care. Methods An observational study design is chosen based on claims data of a German statutory health insurance fund for the years 2008–2011. Three hundred fifty-three age-matched men diagnosed with prostate cancer and treated with conservative management and radical prostatectomy, are included. Individuals with diagnoses of metastases or treatment of advanced prostate cancer are excluded. In an excess cost approach direct medical costs are considered from an insured community perspective for in- and outpatient care, pharmaceuticals, physiotherapy, and assistive technologies. Generalized linear models adjust for comorbidity by Charlson comorbidity score and recycled predictions method calculates per capita costs per treatment strategy. Results After follow-up of 2.5 years per capita costs of conservative management are €6611 lower than costs of prostatectomy ([−9734;−3547], p < 0.0001. Complications increase costs of assistive technologies by 30% (p = 0.0182, but do not influence any other costs. Results are robust to cost outliers and incidence of prostate cancer diagnosis. The short time horizon does not allow assessing long-term consequences of conservative management. Conclusions At a time horizon of 2.5 years, conservative management is preferable to radical prostatectomy in terms of costs. Claims data analysis is limited in the selection of comparable treatment groups, as clinical information is scarce and bias due to non-randomization can only be partly mitigated by matching and confounder adjustment.

  7. Non-fatal workplace violence workers' compensation claims (1993-1996).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashemi, L; Webster, B S

    1998-06-01

    More is known about fatal workplace violence than non-fatal workplace violence (NFWV). This study provides descriptive information on the number and cost of NFWV claims filed with a large workers' compensation carrier. NFWV claims from 51 US jurisdictions were selected either by cause codes or by word search from the accident-description narrative. Claims reported in 1993 through 1996 were analyzed to report the frequency, cost, gender, age, industry, and nature of injury. An analysis of a random sample of 600 claims provided information on perpetrator type, cause of events, and injury mechanism. A total of 28,692 NFWV claims were filed during the study period. No cost was incurred for 32.5% of the claims, and 15.5% received payments for lost work. As a percentage of all claims filed by industry, schools had the highest percentage (11.4%) of NFWV claims, and banking had the highest percentage (11.5%) of cost. The majority of claims in the banking random sample group (93%) were due to stress. In the random sample, 90.3% of claims were caused by criminals (51.8%) or by patients, clients, or customers (38.5%). Only 9.7% were caused by an employee (9.2%) or a personal acquaintance of the employee (0.5%). Employers should acknowledge that NFWV incidents occur, recognize that the majority of perpetrators are criminals or clients rather than employees, and develop appropriate prevention and intervention programs.

  8. BLM Colorado Mining Claims Closed

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of the Interior — Shapefile Format –This data set consists of closed mining claim records extracted from BLM’s LR2000 database. These records contain case attributes as well as legal...

  9. BLM Colorado Mining Claims Active

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of the Interior — Shapefile Format –This data set consists of active mining claim records extracted from BLM’s LR2000 database. These records contain case attributes as well as legal...

  10. Geographic variation in expenditures for workers' compensation physician claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, T R; Levy, D T

    1997-07-01

    We examine interstate variations in the cost of claims for physician care using injury claims from Worker's Compensation, and consider some of the factors that may explain cost differences. Multivariate regression analysis is used to isolate state variations, while controlling for personal and injury characteristics, and state characteristics. Statistical analyses reveal considerable variation in expenditures for physician care of injuries across states, even after controlling for case mix and state characteristics. We also find that the presence of HMOs and of general practitioners as a percent of physicians are associated with lower claims, and that the percent of the state that is urban is associated with higher claims. The large variation in costs suggests a potential to affect the costs of physician care for work-related injuries.

  11. Comparison of Cloud backup performance and costs in Oracle database

    OpenAIRE

    Aljaž Zrnec; Dejan Lavbič

    2011-01-01

    Current practice of backing up data is based on using backup tapes and remote locations for storing data. Nowadays, with the advent of cloud computing a new concept of database backup emerges. The paper presents the possibility of making backup copies of data in the cloud. We are mainly focused on performance and economic issues of making backups in the cloud in comparison to traditional backups. We tested the performance and overall costs of making backup copies of data in Oracle database u...

  12. An Analysis of the Number of Medical Malpractice Claims and Their Amounts.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Bonetti

    Full Text Available Starting from an extensive database, pooling 9 years of data from the top three insurance brokers in Italy, and containing 38125 reported claims due to alleged cases of medical malpractice, we use an inhomogeneous Poisson process to model the number of medical malpractice claims in Italy. The intensity of the process is allowed to vary over time, and it depends on a set of covariates, like the size of the hospital, the medical department and the complexity of the medical operations performed. We choose the combination medical department by hospital as the unit of analysis. Together with the number of claims, we also model the associated amounts paid by insurance companies, using a two-stage regression model. In particular, we use logistic regression for the probability that a claim is closed with a zero payment, whereas, conditionally on the fact that an amount is strictly positive, we make use of lognormal regression to model it as a function of several covariates. The model produces estimates and forecasts that are relevant to both insurance companies and hospitals, for quality assurance, service improvement and cost reduction.

  13. Health care resource use and costs associated with possible side effects of high oral corticosteroid use in asthma: a claims-based analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luskin, Allan T; Antonova, Evgeniya N; Broder, Michael S; Chang, Eunice Y; Omachi, Theodore A; Ledford, Dennis K

    2016-01-01

    The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of possible oral corticosteroid (OCS)-related side effects and health care resource use and costs in patients with asthma. This was a cross-sectional, matched-cohort, retrospective study using a commercial claims database. Adults with asthma diagnosis codes and evidence of asthma medication use were studied. Patients with high OCS use (≥30 days of OCS annually) were divided into those who did versus those who did not experience OCS-related possible side effects. Their health care resource use and costs were compared using linear regression or negative binomial regression models, adjusting for age, sex, geographic region, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease status. After adjustment, high OCS users with possible side effects were more likely to have office visits (23.0 vs 19.6; P possible side effects. Emergency department visits were similar between the groups. High OCS users with possible side effects had higher adjusted total annual mean health care costs ($25,168) than those without such side effects ($21,882; P =0.009). Among high OCS users, patients with possible OCS-related side effects are more likely to use health care services than those without such side effects. Although OCS may help control asthma and manage exacerbations, OCS side effects may result in additional health care resource use and costs, highlighting the need for OCS-sparing asthma therapies.

  14. Good agreement between questionnaire and administrative databases for health care use and costs in patients with osteoarthritis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robertson M Clare

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Estimating costs is essential to the economic analysis of health care programs. Health care costs are often captured from administrative databases or by patient report. Administrative records only provide a partial representation of health care costs and have additional limitations. Patient-completed questionnaires may allow a broader representation of health care costs; however the validity and feasibility of such methods have not been firmly established. This study was conducted to assess the validity and feasibility of using a patient-completed questionnaire to capture health care use and costs for patients with osteoarthritis, and to compare the research costs of the data-capture methods. Methods We designed a patient questionnaire and applied it in a clinical trial. We captured equivalent data from four administrative databases. We evaluated aspects of the questionnaire's validity using sensitivity and specificity, Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (ρc, and Bland-Altman comparisons. Results The questionnaire's response rate was 89%. Acceptable sensitivity and specificity levels were found for all types of health care use. The numbers of visits and the majority of medications reported by patients were in agreement with the database-derived estimates (ρc > 0.40. Total cost estimates from the questionnaire agreed with those from the databases. Patient-reported co-payments agreed with administrative records with respect to GP office transactions, but not pharmaceutical co-payments. Research costs for the questionnaire-based method were less than one-third of the costs for the databases method. Conclusion A patient-completed questionnaire is feasible for capturing health care use and costs for patients with osteoarthritis, and data collected using it mostly agree with administrative databases. Caution should be exercised when applying unit costs and collecting co-payment data.

  15. Incidence of catheter-related complications in patients with central venous or hemodialysis catheters: a health care claims database analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Napalkov, Pavel; Felici, Diana M; Chu, Laura K; Jacobs, Joan R; Begelman, Susan M

    2013-10-16

    Central venous catheter (CVC) and hemodialysis (HD) catheter usage are associated with complications that occur during catheter insertion, dwell period, and removal. This study aims to identify and describe the incidence rates of catheter-related complications in a large patient population in a United States-based health care claims database after CVC or HD catheter placement. Patients in the i3 InVision DataMart® health care claims database with at least 1 CVC or HD catheter insertion claim were categorized into CVC or HD cohorts using diagnostic and procedural codes from the US Renal Data System, American College of Surgeons, and American Medical Association's Physician Performance Measures. Catheter-related complications were identified using published diagnostic and procedural codes. Incidence rates (IRs)/1000 catheter-days were calculated for complications including catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs), thrombosis, embolism, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), major bleeding (MB), and mechanical catheter-related complications (MCRCs). Thirty percent of the CVC cohort and 54% of the HD cohort had catheter placements lasting <90 days. Catheter-related complications occurred most often during the first 90 days of catheter placement. IRs were highest for CRBSIs in both cohorts (4.0 [95% CI, 3.7-4.3] and 5.1 [95% CI, 4.7-5.6], respectively). Other IRs in CVC and HD cohorts, respectively, were thrombosis, 1.3 and 0.8; MCRCs, 0.6 and 0.7; embolism, 0.4 and 0.5; MB, 0.1 and 0.3; and ICH, 0.1 in both cohorts. Patients with cancer at baseline had significantly higher IRs for CRBSIs and thrombosis than non-cancer patients. CVC or HD catheter-related complications were most frequently seen in patients 16 years or younger. The risk of catheter-related complications is highest during the first 90 days of catheter placement in patients with CVCs and HD catheters and in younger patients (≤16 years of age) with HD catheters. Data provided in this study can be applied

  16. Seasonality in acute liver injury? Findings in two health care claims databases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weinstein RB

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Rachel B Weinstein, Martijn J Schuemie, Patrick B Ryan, Paul E Stang Epidemiology, Janssen Research and Development, LLC, Titusville, NJ, USA Background: Presumed seasonal use of acetaminophen-containing products for relief of cold/influenza (“flu” symptoms suggests that there might also be a corresponding seasonal pattern for acute liver injury (ALI, a known clinical consequence of acetaminophen overdose. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether there were any temporal patterns in hospitalizations for ALI that would correspond to assumed acetaminophen use in cold/flu season. Methods: In the period 2002–2010, monthly hospitalization rates for ALI using a variety of case definitions were calculated. Data sources included Truven MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters (CCAE and Medicare Supplemental and Coordination of Benefits (MDCR databases. We performed a statistical test for seasonality of diagnoses using the periodic generalized linear model. To validate that the test can distinguish seasonal from nonseasonal patterns, we included two positive controls (ie, diagnoses of the common cold [acute nasopharyngitis] and influenza, believed to change with seasons, and two negative controls (female breast cancer and diabetes, believed to be insensitive to season. Results: A seasonal pattern was observed in monthly rates for common cold and influenza diagnoses, but this pattern was not observed for monthly rates of ALI, with or without comorbidities (cirrhosis or hepatitis, breast cancer, or diabetes. The statistical test for seasonality was significant for positive controls (P<0.001 for each diagnosis in both databases and nonsignificant for ALI and negative controls. Conclusion: No seasonal pattern was observed in the diagnosis of ALI. The positive and negative controls showed the expected patterns, strengthening the validity of the statistical and visual tests used for detecting seasonality. Keywords: acute liver

  17. EuroFIR eBASIS: application for health claims submissions and evaluations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kiely, M.; Black, L.J.; Plumb, J.

    2010-01-01

    Background: The European Food Information Resource (EuroFIR) network has established the eBASIS (Bioactive Substances in Food Information System) online food composition and biological effects database for plant-derived bioactive compounds (phytochemicals). On the basis of submitted evidence......, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) expert panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies assesses whether claims made under articles 13.1, 13.5 or 14 of the Regulation (EC) 1924/2006, which governs the use of nutrition and health claims on foods, are scientifically justified. This report evaluates...... the eBASIS biological effects database in the preparation and evaluation of health claims dossiers. Methods: The eBASIS biological effects database is a compilation of expert-evaluated data extracted from the literature, prioritising human intervention studies to investigate health effects...

  18. A database prototype has been developed to help understand costs in photovoltaic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moorw, Larry M.

    2000-01-01

    High photovoltaic (PV) system costs hinder market growth. An approach to studying these costs has been developed using a database containing system, component and maintenance information. This data, which is both technical and non-technical in nature, is to be used to identify trends related to costs. A pilot database exists at this time and work is continuing. The results of this work may be used by the data owners to improve their operations with the goal of sharing non-attributable information with the public and industry at large. The published objectives of the DOE PV program are to accelerate the development of PV as a national and global energy option, as well as ensure US technology and global market leadership. The approach to supporting these objectives is to understand what drives costs in PV applications. This paper and poster session describe work-in-progress in the form of a database that will help identify costs in PV systems. In an effort to address DOE's Five-Year PV Milestones, a program was established in the summer of 1999 to study system costs in three PV applications--solar home lighting, water pumping, and grid-tied systems. This work began with a RFQ requesting data from these types of systems. Creating a partnership with industry and other system organizations such as Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) was the approach chosen to maintain a close time to the systems in the field. Nine participants were selected as partners, who provided data on their systems. Two activities are emphasized in this work. For the first, an iterative approach of developing baseline reliability and costs information with the participants was taken. This effort led to identifying typical components in these systems as well as the specific data (metrics) that would be needed in any analysis used to understand total systems costs

  19. Pediatric radiology malpractice claims - characteristics and comparison to adult radiology claims

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Breen, Micheal A.; Taylor, George A. [Boston Children' s Hospital, Department of Radiology, Boston, MA (United States); Dwyer, Kathy; Yu-Moe, Winnie [CRICO Risk Management Foundation, Boston, MA (United States)

    2017-06-15

    Medical malpractice is the primary method by which people who believe they have suffered an injury in the course of medical care seek compensation in the United States and Canada. An increasing body of research demonstrates that failure to correctly diagnose is the most common allegation made in malpractice claims against radiologists. Since the 1994 survey by the Society of Chairmen of Radiology in Children's Hospitals (SCORCH), no other published studies have specifically examined the frequency or clinical context of malpractice claims against pediatric radiologists or arising from pediatric imaging interpretation. We hypothesize that the frequency, character and outcome of malpractice claims made against pediatric radiologists differ from those seen in general radiology practice. We searched the Controlled Risk Insurance Co. (CRICO) Strategies' Comparative Benchmarking System (CBS), a private repository of approximately 350,000 open and closed medical malpractice claims in the United States, for claims related to pediatric radiology. We further queried these cases for the major allegation, the clinical environment in which the claim arose, the clinical severity of the alleged injury, indemnity paid (if payment was made), primary imaging modality involved (if applicable) and primary International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9) diagnosis underlying the claim. There were a total of 27,056 fully coded claims of medical malpractice in the CBS database in the 5-year period between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2014. Of these, 1,472 cases (5.4%) involved patients younger than 18 years. Radiology was the primary service responsible for 71/1,472 (4.8%) pediatric cases. There were statistically significant differences in average payout for pediatric radiology claims ($314,671) compared to adult radiology claims ($174,033). The allegations were primarily diagnosis-related in 70% of pediatric radiology claims. The most common imaging modality

  20. Pediatric radiology malpractice claims - characteristics and comparison to adult radiology claims

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Breen, Micheal A.; Taylor, George A.; Dwyer, Kathy; Yu-Moe, Winnie

    2017-01-01

    Medical malpractice is the primary method by which people who believe they have suffered an injury in the course of medical care seek compensation in the United States and Canada. An increasing body of research demonstrates that failure to correctly diagnose is the most common allegation made in malpractice claims against radiologists. Since the 1994 survey by the Society of Chairmen of Radiology in Children's Hospitals (SCORCH), no other published studies have specifically examined the frequency or clinical context of malpractice claims against pediatric radiologists or arising from pediatric imaging interpretation. We hypothesize that the frequency, character and outcome of malpractice claims made against pediatric radiologists differ from those seen in general radiology practice. We searched the Controlled Risk Insurance Co. (CRICO) Strategies' Comparative Benchmarking System (CBS), a private repository of approximately 350,000 open and closed medical malpractice claims in the United States, for claims related to pediatric radiology. We further queried these cases for the major allegation, the clinical environment in which the claim arose, the clinical severity of the alleged injury, indemnity paid (if payment was made), primary imaging modality involved (if applicable) and primary International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9) diagnosis underlying the claim. There were a total of 27,056 fully coded claims of medical malpractice in the CBS database in the 5-year period between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2014. Of these, 1,472 cases (5.4%) involved patients younger than 18 years. Radiology was the primary service responsible for 71/1,472 (4.8%) pediatric cases. There were statistically significant differences in average payout for pediatric radiology claims ($314,671) compared to adult radiology claims ($174,033). The allegations were primarily diagnosis-related in 70% of pediatric radiology claims. The most common imaging modality implicated in

  1. Pediatric radiology malpractice claims - characteristics and comparison to adult radiology claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breen, Micheál A; Dwyer, Kathy; Yu-Moe, Winnie; Taylor, George A

    2017-06-01

    Medical malpractice is the primary method by which people who believe they have suffered an injury in the course of medical care seek compensation in the United States and Canada. An increasing body of research demonstrates that failure to correctly diagnose is the most common allegation made in malpractice claims against radiologists. Since the 1994 survey by the Society of Chairmen of Radiology in Children's Hospitals (SCORCH), no other published studies have specifically examined the frequency or clinical context of malpractice claims against pediatric radiologists or arising from pediatric imaging interpretation. We hypothesize that the frequency, character and outcome of malpractice claims made against pediatric radiologists differ from those seen in general radiology practice. We searched the Controlled Risk Insurance Co. (CRICO) Strategies' Comparative Benchmarking System (CBS), a private repository of approximately 350,000 open and closed medical malpractice claims in the United States, for claims related to pediatric radiology. We further queried these cases for the major allegation, the clinical environment in which the claim arose, the clinical severity of the alleged injury, indemnity paid (if payment was made), primary imaging modality involved (if applicable) and primary International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9) diagnosis underlying the claim. There were a total of 27,056 fully coded claims of medical malpractice in the CBS database in the 5-year period between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2014. Of these, 1,472 cases (5.4%) involved patients younger than 18 years. Radiology was the primary service responsible for 71/1,472 (4.8%) pediatric cases. There were statistically significant differences in average payout for pediatric radiology claims ($314,671) compared to adult radiology claims ($174,033). The allegations were primarily diagnosis-related in 70% of pediatric radiology claims. The most common imaging modality implicated in

  2. Linked Patient-Reported Outcomes Data From Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Recruited on an Open Internet Platform to Health Care Claims Databases Identifies a Representative Population for Real-Life Data Analysis in Multiple Sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Risson, Valery; Ghodge, Bhaskar; Bonzani, Ian C; Korn, Jonathan R; Medin, Jennie; Saraykar, Tanmay; Sengupta, Souvik; Saini, Deepanshu; Olson, Melvin

    2016-09-22

    An enormous amount of information relevant to public health is being generated directly by online communities. To explore the feasibility of creating a dataset that links patient-reported outcomes data, from a Web-based survey of US patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) recruited on open Internet platforms, to health care utilization information from health care claims databases. The dataset was generated by linkage analysis to a broader MS population in the United States using both pharmacy and medical claims data sources. US Facebook users with an interest in MS were alerted to a patient-reported survey by targeted advertisements. Eligibility criteria were diagnosis of MS by a specialist (primary progressive, relapsing-remitting, or secondary progressive), ≥12-month history of disease, age 18-65 years, and commercial health insurance. Participants completed a questionnaire including data on demographic and disease characteristics, current and earlier therapies, relapses, disability, health-related quality of life, and employment status and productivity. A unique anonymous profile was generated for each survey respondent. Each anonymous profile was linked to a number of medical and pharmacy claims datasets in the United States. Linkage rates were assessed and survey respondents' representativeness was evaluated based on differences in the distribution of characteristics between the linked survey population and the general MS population in the claims databases. The advertisement was placed on 1,063,973 Facebook users' pages generating 68,674 clicks, 3719 survey attempts, and 651 successfully completed surveys, of which 440 could be linked to any of the claims databases for 2014 or 2015 (67.6% linkage rate). Overall, no significant differences were found between patients who were linked and not linked for educational status, ethnicity, current or prior disease-modifying therapy (DMT) treatment, or presence of a relapse in the last 12 months. The frequencies of the

  3. Claims in civil engineering contracts

    CERN Document Server

    Speirs, N A

    1999-01-01

    This paper considers claims arising during civil engineering construction contracts. The meaning of the word 'claim' is considered and its possible implications for additional cost and time to completion. The conditions of the construction contract selected will influence the risk apportionment between contractor and client and the price offered by the contractor for the work. Competitive bidding constraints and profit margins in the construction industry, however, may also influence the price offered. This in turn can influence the likelihood of claims arising. The client from his point of view is concerned to complete the work within an agreed time and budget. The circumstances under which claims may arise are reviewed in relation to typical conditions of contract. These circumstances are then related to the CERN LHC civil works. Ways of avoiding claims, where this is possible, are considered. Finally, the means of evaluation of claims and their settlement are considered.

  4. The association between employee obesity and employer costs: evidence from a panel of U.S. employers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Nuys, Karen; Globe, Denise; Ng-Mak, Daisy; Cheung, Hoiwan; Sullivan, Jeff; Goldman, Dana

    2014-01-01

    To estimate the employer costs associated with employee obesity. The study used cross-sectional analysis of employee health-risk assessment, disability, workers' compensation, and medical claims data from 2006 to 2008. The study took place in the United States from 2006 to 2008. A panel database with 29,699 employees drawn from a panel of employers and observed for 3 years each (N = 89,097) was used. Workdays lost owing to illness and disability; the cost of medical, short-term disability, and workers' compensation claims; and employees' adjusted body mass indices (BMI) were measured. We model the number and probability of workdays lost from illness, short-term disability, and workers' compensation events; short-term disability and workers' compensation payments; and health care spending as a function of BMI. We estimate spline regression models and fit results using a third-degree fractional polynomial. Probability of disability, workers' compensation claims, and number of days missed owing to any cause increase with BMI above 25, as do total employer costs. The probability of a short-term disability claim increases faster for employees with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or diabetes. Normal weight employees cost on average $3830 per year in covered medical, sick day, short-term disability, and workers' compensation claims combined; morbidly obese employees cost more than twice that amount, or $8067, in 2011 dollars. Obesity is associated with large employer costs from direct health care and insurance claims and indirect costs from lost productivity owing to workdays lost because of illness and disability.

  5. Downsizing a database platform for increased performance and decreased costs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miller, M.M.; Tolendino, L.F.

    1993-06-01

    Technological advances in the world of microcomputers have brought forth affordable systems and powerful software than can compete with the more traditional world of minicomputers. This paper describes an effort at Sandia National Laboratories to decrease operational and maintenance costs and increase performance by moving a database system from a minicomputer to a microcomputer.

  6. PS2-15: Coding for Obesity in a Health Plan Claims Database

    OpenAIRE

    Shainline, Michael; Carter, Shelley; Von Worley, Ann; Gunter, Margaret

    2010-01-01

    Background and Aims: The Centers for Disease Control estimated the obesity rate in New Mexico for 2008 to be 25.2%. Sources estimate the following associations between obesity and type 2 diabetes (80%); cardiovascular disease (70%); hypertension (26 %). Yet obesity is infrequently coded as a secondary diagnosis among providers submitting claims. This study examines the frequency with which obesity is documented on claims forms, the relationship between age, gender, and obesity coding, and the...

  7. Marine Jurisdictions Database

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Goldsmith, Roger

    1998-01-01

    The purpose of this project was to take the data gathered for the Maritime Claims chart and create a Maritime Jurisdictions digital database suitable for use with oceanographic mission planning objectives...

  8. Towards cloud-centric distributed database evaluation

    OpenAIRE

    Seybold, Daniel

    2016-01-01

    The area of cloud computing also pushed the evolvement of distributed databases, resulting in a variety of distributed database systems, which can be classified in relation databases, NoSQL and NewSQL database systems. In general all representatives of these database system classes claim to provide elasticity and "unlimited" horizontal scalability. As these characteristics comply with the cloud, distributed databases seem to be a perfect match for Database-as-a-Service systems (DBaaS).

  9. Towards Cloud-centric Distributed Database Evaluation

    OpenAIRE

    Seybold, Daniel

    2016-01-01

    The area of cloud computing also pushed the evolvement of distributed databases, resulting in a variety of distributed database systems, which can be classified in relation databases, NoSQL and NewSQL database systems. In general all representatives of these database system classes claim to provide elasticity and "unlimited" horizontal scalability. As these characteristics comply with the cloud, distributed databases seem to be a perfect match for Database-as-a-Service systems (DBaaS).

  10. Geographic variation in expenditures for Workers' Compensation hospitalized claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, T R; Levy, D T

    1999-02-01

    Past literature finds considerable variation in the cost of physician care and in the utilization of medical procedures. Variation in the cost of hospitalized care has received little attention. We examine injury costs of hospitalized claims across states. Multivariate regression analysis is used to isolate state variations, while controlling for personal and injury characteristics, and state characteristics. Injuries to workers filing Workers' Compensation lost workday claims. About 35,000 randomly sampled Workers' Compensation claims from 17 states filed between 1979 and 1988. Medical payments per episode of three injury groups: upper and lower extremity fractures and dislocations, other upper extremity injuries, and back strains and sprains. Statistical analyses reveal considerable variation in expenditures for hospitalized injuries across states, even after controlling for case mix and state characteristics. A substantial portion of the variation is explained by state rate regulations; regulated states have lower costs. The large variation in costs suggests a potential to affect the costs of hospitalized care. Efforts should be directed at those areas that have higher costs without sufficient input price, quality, or case mix justification.

  11. The importance of subjective claims management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beger, C S

    1997-01-01

    This article discusses the causes and effects of "subjective disability" on today's workforce and employers. As employees feel out of control with both their careers and demands placed upon them, the number of claims characterized by self-reported symptoms are increasing. Subjective disabilities include chronic syndrome, fibromyalgia, psychiatric claims and chronic pain. The author discusses creative strategies in case studies that have helped employers contain the costs of disability claims, while empowering the employee to take control of their own situation and return to work sooner.

  12. 32 CFR 842.65 - Claims not payable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Claims not payable. 842.65 Section 842.65 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE CLAIMS AND LITIGATION... costs. (d) Accrues from a private contractual relationship between US personnel and third parties about...

  13. Operating room fires: a closed claims analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehta, Sonya P; Bhananker, Sanjay M; Posner, Karen L; Domino, Karen B

    2013-05-01

    To assess patterns of injury and liability associated with operating room (OR) fires, closed malpractice claims in the American Society of Anesthesiologists Closed Claims Database since 1985 were reviewed. All claims related to fires in the OR were compared with nonfire-related surgical anesthesia claims. An analysis of fire-related claims was performed to identify causative factors. There were 103 OR fire claims (1.9% of 5,297 surgical claims). Electrocautery was the ignition source in 90% of fire claims. OR fire claims more frequently involved older outpatients compared with other surgical anesthesia claims (P fire claims (P fires (n = 93) increased over time (P fires occurred during head, neck, or upper chest procedures (high-fire-risk procedures). Oxygen served as the oxidizer in 95% of electrocautery-induced OR fires (84% with open delivery system). Most electrocautery-induced fires (n = 75, 81%) occurred during monitored anesthesia care. Oxygen was administered via an open delivery system in all high-risk procedures during monitored anesthesia care. In contrast, alcohol-containing prep solutions and volatile compounds were present in only 15% of OR fires during monitored anesthesia care. Electrocautery-induced fires during monitored anesthesia care were the most common cause of OR fires claims. Recognition of the fire triad (oxidizer, fuel, and ignition source), particularly the critical role of supplemental oxygen by an open delivery system during use of the electrocautery, is crucial to prevent OR fires. Continuing education and communication among OR personnel along with fire prevention protocols in high-fire-risk procedures may reduce the occurrence of OR fires.

  14. Number and cost of claims linked to minor cervical trauma in Europe: results from the comparative study by CEA, AREDOC and CEREDOC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chappuis, Guy; Soltermann, Bruno

    2008-10-01

    Comparative epidemiological study of minor cervical spine trauma (frequently referred to as whiplash injury) based on data from the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA) gathered in ten European countries. To determine the incidence and expenditure (e.g., for assessment, treatment or claims) for minor cervical spine injury in the participating countries. Controversy still surrounds the basis on which symptoms following minor cervical spine trauma may develop. In particular, there is considerable disagreement with regard to a possible contribution of psychosocial factors in determining outcome. The role of compensation is also a source of constant debate. The method followed here is the comparison of the data from different areas of interest (e.g., incidence of minor cervical spine trauma, percentage of minor cervical spine trauma in relationship to the incidence of bodily trauma, costs for assessment or claims) from ten European countries. Considerable differences exist regarding the incidence of minor cervical spine trauma and related costs in participating countries. France and Finland have the lowest and Great Britain the highest incidence of minor cervical spine trauma. The number of claims following minor cervical spine trauma in Switzerland is around the European average; however, Switzerland has the highest expenditure per claim at an average cost of 35,000.00 euros compared to the European average of 9,000.00 euros. Furthermore, the mandatory accident insurance statistics in Switzerland show very large differences between German-speaking and French- or Italian-speaking parts of the country. In the latter the costs for minor cervical spine trauma expanded more than doubled in the period from 1990 to 2002, whereas in the German-speaking part they rose by a factor of five. All the countries participating in the study have a high standard of medical care. The differences in claims frequency and costs must therefore reflect a social phenomenon based on the

  15. Alleged B. anthracis exposure claims in a workers' compensation setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jewell, Gregory; Dunning, Kari; Lockey, James E

    2006-01-01

    Workers' compensation insurance in some states may not provide coverage for medical evaluation costs of workplace exposures related to potential bioterrorism acts if there is no diagnosed illness or disease. Personal insurance also may not provide coverage for these exposures occurring at the workplace. Governmental entities, insurers, and employers need to consider how to address such situations and the associated costs. The objective of this study was to examine characteristics of workers and total costs associated with workers' compensation claims alleging potential exposure to the bioterrorism organism B. anthracis. We examined 192 claims referred for review to the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (OBWC) from October 10, 2001, through December 20, 2004. Although some cases came from out-of-state areas where B. anthracis exposure was known to exist, no Ohio claim was associated with true B. anthracis exposure or B. anthracis-related illness. Of the 155 eligible claims, 126 included medical costs averaging dollar 219 and ranging from dollar 24 to dollar 3,126. There was no difference in mean cost for government and non-government employees (p = 0.202 Wilcoxon). The number of claims and associated medical costs for evaluation and treatment of potential workplace exposure to B. anthracis were relatively small. These results can be attributed to several factors, including no documented B. anthracis exposures and disease in Ohio and prompt transmission of recommended diagnostic and prophylactic treatment protocols to physicians. How employers, insurers, and jurisdictions address payment for evaluation and treatment of potential or documented exposures resulting from a potential terrorism-related event should be addressed proactively.

  16. Cost burden and treatment patterns associated with management of heavy menstrual bleeding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Jeffrey T; Lefebvre, Patrick; Laliberté, François; Sarda, Sujata P; Law, Amy; Pocoski, Jennifer; Duh, Mei Sheng

    2012-05-01

    This study evaluated the healthcare resource use, work productivity loss, costs, and treatment patterns associated with newly diagnosed idiopathic heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) using a large employer database. Medical and pharmacy claims (1998-2009) from 55 self-insured U.S. companies were analyzed. Women aged 18-52 years with ≥2 HMB claims (ICD-9 626.2, 627.0) and continuously enrolled for ≥6 months before the first claim were matched 1:1 with controls. Exclusion criteria were cancer, pregnancy, and infertility; HMB-related uterine conditions; endometrial ablation; hysterectomy; anticoagulant medications; and other known HMB causes. All-cause healthcare resource use and costs were compared between the HMB and control cohorts using statistical methods accounting for matched study design. Treatment patterns were examined for HMB subjects. HMB and control cohorts (n=29,842 in both) were matched and balanced in baseline characteristics and costs. During follow-up, HMB subjects had significantly higher all-cause resource use than did control subjects: hospitalization incidence rate ratio (IRR)=2.70 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.62-2.79); emergency room visits IRR=1.35 (95% CI 1.31-1.38); outpatient visits IRR=1.29 (95% CI 1.29-1.30). Average annualized all-cause costs were also higher for HMB subjects than controls (mean difference $2,607, pCosts associated with HMB claims represented 50% ($1,313) of the all-cause cost difference. Of HMB subjects, 63.2% underwent surgical treatment as initial therapy. In this large matched-cohort study, an idiopathic diagnosis of HMB was associated with high rates of surgical intervention and increased healthcare resource use and costs.

  17. Estimation of Missed Statin Prescription Use in an Administrative Claims Dataset.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wade, Rolin L; Patel, Jeetvan G; Hill, Jerrold W; De, Ajita P; Harrison, David J

    2017-09-01

    Nonadherence to statin medications is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and poses a challenge to lipid management in patients who are at risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Numerous studies have examined statin adherence based on administrative claims data; however, these data may underestimate statin use in patients who participate in generic drug discount programs or who have alternative coverage. To estimate the proportion of patients with missing statin claims in a claims database and determine how missing claims affect commonly used utilization metrics. This retrospective cohort study used pharmacy data from the PharMetrics Plus (P+) claims dataset linked to the IMS longitudinal pharmacy point-of-sale prescription database (LRx) from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2014. Eligible patients were represented in the P+ and LRx datasets, had ≥1 claim for a statin (index claim) in either database, and had ≥ 24 months of continuous enrollment in P+. Patients were linked between P+ and LRx using a deterministic method. Duplicate claims between LRx and P+ were removed to produce a new dataset comprised of P+ claims augmented with LRx claims. Statin use was then compared between P+ and the augmented P+ dataset. Utilization metrics that were evaluated included percentage of patients with ≥ 1 missing statin claim over 12 months in P+; the number of patients misclassified as new users in P+; the number of patients misclassified as nonstatin users in P+; the change in 12-month medication possession ratio (MPR) and proportion of days covered (PDC) in P+; the comparison between P+ and LRx of classifications of statin treatment patterns (statin intensity and patients with treatment modifications); and the payment status for missing statin claims. Data from 965,785 patients with statin claims in P+ were analyzed (mean age 56.6 years; 57% male). In P+, 20.1% had ≥ 1 missing statin claim post-index; 13.7% were misclassified as

  18. Cervical spinal cord, root, and bony spine injuries: a closed claims analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hindman, Bradley J; Palecek, John P; Posner, Karen L; Traynelis, Vincent C; Lee, Lorri A; Sawin, Paul D; Tredway, Trent L; Todd, Michael M; Domino, Karen B

    2011-04-01

    The aim of this study was to characterize cervical cord, root, and bony spine claims in the American Society of Anesthesiologists Closed Claims database to formulate hypotheses regarding mechanisms of injury. All general anesthesia claims (1970-2007) in the Closed Claims database were searched to identify cervical injuries. Three independent teams, each consisting of an anesthesiologist and neurosurgeon, used a standardized review form to extract data from claim summaries and judge probable contributors to injury. Cervical injury claims (n = 48; mean ± SD age 47 ± 15 yr; 73% male) comprised less than 1% of all general anesthesia claims. When compared with other general anesthesia claims (19%), cervical injury claims were more often permanent and disabling (69%; P cervical stenosis) were often present, cord injuries usually occurred in the absence of traumatic injury (81%) or cervical spine instability (76%). Cord injury occurred with cervical spine (65%) and noncervical spine (35%) procedures. Twenty-four percent of cord injuries were associated with the sitting position. Probable contributors to cord injury included anatomic abnormalities (81%), direct surgical complications (24% [38%, cervical spine procedures]), preprocedural symptomatic cord injury (19%), intraoperative head/neck position (19%), and airway management (11%). Most cervical cord injuries occurred in the absence of traumatic injury, instability, and airway difficulties. Cervical spine procedures and/or sitting procedures appear to predominate. In the absence of instability, cervical spondylosis was the most common factor associated with cord injury.

  19. Variation in the Cost of Managing Actinic Keratosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregory, Tanner; Liu, Guodong; Leslie, Douglas L.; Miller, Jeffrey J.

    2017-01-01

    Importance Actinic keratosis (AK), a skin growth induced by ultraviolet light exposure, requires chronic management because a small proportion can progress into squamous cell skin cancer. Spending for AK management was more than $1 billion in 2004. Investigating geographic variation in AK spending presents an opportunity to decrease waste or recoup excess spending. Objective To evaluate geographic variation in health care cost for management of AKs and the association with patient-related and health-related factors. Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective cohort study was performed using data from the MarketScan medical claims database of 488 324 continuously enrolled members with 2 or more claims for AK. Data from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2012, was used. Main Outcomes and Measures Annual costs of care were calculated for outpatient visits, AK destruction, and medications for AKs, and the total of these components. Costs were adjusted for inflation to 2014 US dollars. To display cost variation, we calculated the ratio of mean cost in the highest quintile (Q5) relative to the mean in the lowest quintile (Q1), or the Q5:Q1 ratio; Q5:Q1 ratios were adjusted based on age, sex, history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, US geographic region, and population density (metropolitan statistical area). Results Overall, data from 488 324 continuously enrolled members (mean [SD] age, 53.1 [7.5] years; 243 662 women) with 2 or more claims for AK were included. Overall, patients had 1 085 985 claims related to AK, and dermatologists accounted for 71.0% of claims. The 2-year total cost was $111.5 million, with $52.4 million in 2011 and $59.1 million in 2012. The unadjusted Q5:Q1 ratios for total annual cost per patient ranged from 9.49 to 15.10. Adjusted ratios ranged from 1.72 to 1.80. Conclusions and Relevance There is variation in AK management cost within and between regions. This is not fully explained by differences in patient characteristics such as

  20. The Direct Cost of Managing a Rare Disease: Assessing Medical and Pharmacy Costs Associated with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thayer, Sarah; Bell, Christopher; McDonald, Craig M

    2017-06-01

    A Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) cohort was identified using a claims-based algorithm to estimate health care utilization and costs for commercially insured DMD patients in the United States. Previous analyses have used broad diagnosis codes that include a range of muscular dystrophy types as a proxy to estimate the burden of DMD. To estimate DMD-associated resource utilization and costs in a sample of patients identified via a claims-based algorithm using diagnosis codes, pharmacy prescriptions, and procedure codes unique to DMD management based on DMD clinical milestones. DMD patients were selected from a commercially insured claims database (2000-2009). Patients with claims suggestive of a non-DMD diagnosis or who were aged 30 years or older were excluded. Each DMD patient was matched by age, gender, and region to controls without DMD in a 1:10 ratio (DMD patients n = 75; controls n = 750). All-cause health care resource utilization, including emergency department, inpatient, outpatient, and physician office visits, and all-cause health care costs were examined over a minimum 1-year period. Costs were computed as total health-plan and patient-paid amounts of adjudicated medical claims (in annualized U.S. dollars). The average age of the DMD cohort was 13 years. Patients in the DMD cohort had a 10-fold increase in health care costs compared with controls ($23,005 vs. $2,277, P McDonald has been a consultant for GSK, Sarepta, PTC Therapeutics, Biomarin, and Catabasis on clinical trials regarding Duchenne muscular dystrophy clinical trial design, endpoint selection, and data analysis; Mitobridge for drug development; and Eli Lilly as part of a steering committee for clinical trials. Study concept and design were contributed primarily by Bell, along with Thayer and McDonald. Thayer collected the data, and data interpretation was performed by Thayer and Bell, along with McDonald. The manuscript was written by Thayer and Bell, along with McDonald, and revised by

  1. A Tactical Database for the Low Cost Combat Direction System

    Science.gov (United States)

    1990-12-01

    A Tactical Database for the Low Cost Combat Direction System by Everton G. de Paula Captain, Brazilian Air Force B.S., Instituto Tecnologico de...objects as a unit. The AVANCE object management system [Ref. 29] uses the timestamp 156 model (pessimistic approach) for concurrency control. The Vbase...are no longer used). In AVANCE [Ref. 291, garbage collection is performed on user request. In GemStone [Ref. 25], garbage collection is executed in

  2. 44 CFR 295.31 - Reimbursement of claim expenses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... § 295.31 Reimbursement of claim expenses. (a) FEMA will reimburse Claimants for the reasonable costs they incur in copying documentation requested by OCGFC. FEMA will also reimburse Claimants for the... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Reimbursement of claim...

  3. Reducing medical claims cost to Ghana?s National Health Insurance scheme: a cross-sectional comparative assessment of the paper- and electronic-based claims reviews

    OpenAIRE

    Nsiah-Boateng, Eric; Asenso-Boadi, Francis; Dsane-Selby, Lydia; Andoh-Adjei, Francis-Xavier; Otoo, Nathaniel; Akweongo, Patricia; Aikins, Moses

    2017-01-01

    Background A robust medical claims review system is crucial for addressing fraud and abuse and ensuring financial viability of health insurance organisations. This paper assesses claims adjustment rate of the paper- and electronic-based claims reviews of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana. Methods The study was a cross-sectional comparative assessment of paper- and electronic-based claims reviews of the NHIS. Medical claims of subscribers for the year, 2014 were requested fr...

  4. Nuclear liability claims handling and costs - Germany and some comparative solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harbruecker, D.

    2000-01-01

    Comparison of legal status in Central Europe: coverage by insurance and State intervention, coverage of legal expenses and interests on awards technical problems of claims handing after a nuclear incident: guidelines to be prepared by insurer before and not after an incident occurred, demands on provider of financial security claims handling for part guaranteed by State to be transferred to insurer, necessary regulations of such arrangements (author)

  5. HEALTH INFO SANTE ANNUAL DEDUCTIBLE AND REIMBURSEMENT CLAIMS: HINTS FOR USE

    CERN Multimedia

    1999-01-01

    Information from the CHIS Board and the Personnel DivisionOne should bear in mind that the annual deductible is an amount (currently CHF 100) charged automatically by the Administrator of the scheme for every adult aged 18 and above. This is what happens: The amount is deducted annually for all medical services received over a calendar year.It is triggered by the date of the treatment and not by the date of the bill nor that of the reimbursement claim.In other words, if you receive medical treatment in December for the first time in a given year, the CHF 100 will be deducted from the claim for that treatment. So, except for urgent cases, it would be better to wait till the following month, thus avoiding one annual deductible.It is also worth remembering that the cost of processing our reimbursement claims - and there were 55, 000 in 1998 - is part of the cost of our insurance.Help keep administrative costs down : do not submit reimbursement claims for amounts less than the annual deductible unless your claims...

  6. 76 FR 77533 - Notice of Order: Revisions to Enterprise Public Use Database Incorporating High-Cost Single...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-13

    ..., regarding FHFA's adoption of an Order revising FHFA's Public Use Database matrices to include certain data... FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY [No. 2011-N-13] Notice of Order: Revisions to Enterprise Public Use Database Incorporating High-Cost Single-Family Securitized Loan Data Fields and Technical Data Field...

  7. Health care resource use and costs associated with possible side effects of high oral corticosteroid use in asthma: a claims-based analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luskin AT

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Allan T Luskin,1 Evgeniya N Antonova,2 Michael S Broder,3 Eunice Y Chang,3 Theodore A Omachi,2 Dennis K Ledford4 1HealthyAirways, Madison, WI, 2Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, 3Partnership for Health Analytic Research, LLC, Beverly Hills, CA, 4Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA Background: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of possible oral corticosteroid (OCS-related side effects and health care resource use and costs in patients with asthma.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, matched-cohort, retrospective study using a commercial claims database. Adults with asthma diagnosis codes and evidence of asthma medication use were studied. Patients with high OCS use (≥30 days of OCS annually were divided into those who did versus those who did not experience OCS-related possible side effects. Their health care resource use and costs were compared using linear regression or negative binomial regression models, adjusting for age, sex, geographic region, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease status.Results: After adjustment, high OCS users with possible side effects were more likely to have office visits (23.0 vs 19.6; P<0.001 and hospitalizations (0.44 vs 0.22; P<0.001 than those without possible side effects. Emergency department visits were similar between the groups. High OCS users with possible side effects had higher adjusted total annual mean health care costs ($25,168 than those without such side effects ($21,882; P=0.009.Conclusion: Among high OCS users, patients with possible OCS-related side effects are more likely to use health care services than those without such side effects. Although OCS may help control asthma and manage exacerbations, OCS side effects may result in additional health care resource use and costs, highlighting the need

  8. Empirical Study of the Serverity of Loss and Expense Claims on ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Claims for loss and /or expense is characteristic of most building contracts in Nigeria irrespective of their size and scope; and often defeats project objectives of time, cost and functionality by leading to their time and cost overrun. This study aims at minimizing the negative effect of loss and /or expense claims by providing an ...

  9. 33 CFR 136.105 - General requirements for a claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... (CONTINUED) MARINE POLLUTION FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPENSATION OIL SPILL LIABILITY TRUST FUND; CLAIMS... the Fund the claimant receives any compensation for the claimed amounts, the claimant shall... certain for compensation for each category of uncompensated damages or removal costs (as described in...

  10. Closed medical negligence claims can drive patient safety and reduce litigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pegalis, Steven E; Bal, B Sonny

    2012-05-01

    Medical liability reform is viewed by many physician groups as a means of reducing medical malpractice litigation and lowering healthcare costs. However, alternative approaches such as closed medical negligence claims data may also achieve these goals. We asked whether information gleaned from closed claims related to medical negligence could promote patient safety and reduce costs related to medical liability. Specifically, we investigated whether physician groups have examined such data to identify error patterns and to then institute specific patient treatment protocols. We searched for medical societies that have systematically examined closed medical negligence claims in their specialty to develop specific standards of physician conduct. We then searched the medical literature for published evidence of the efficacy, if any, related to the patient safety measures thus developed. Anesthesia and obstetric physician societies have successfully targeted costs and related concerns arising from medical malpractice lawsuits by using data from closed claims to develop patient safety and treatment guidelines. In both specialties, after institution of safety measures derived from closed medical negligence claims, the incidence and costs related to medical malpractice decreased and physician satisfaction improved. Tort reform, in the form of legislatively prescribed limits on damages arising from lawsuits, is not the only means of addressing the incidence and costs related to medical malpractice litigation. As the experience of anesthesia and obstetric physicians has demonstrated, safety guidelines derived from analyzing past medical malpractice litigation can achieve the same goals while also promoting patient safety.

  11. Determination of the optimal case definition for the diagnosis of end-stage renal disease from administrative claims data in Manitoba, Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Komenda, Paul; Yu, Nancy; Leung, Stella; Bernstein, Keevin; Blanchard, James; Sood, Manish; Rigatto, Claudio; Tangri, Navdeep

    2015-01-01

    End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a major public health problem with increasing prevalence and costs. An understanding of the long-term trends in dialysis rates and outcomes can help inform health policy. We determined the optimal case definition for the diagnosis of ESRD using administrative claims data in the province of Manitoba over a 7-year period. We determined the sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and overall accuracy of 4 administrative case definitions for the diagnosis of ESRD requiring chronic dialysis over different time horizons from Jan. 1, 2004, to Mar. 31, 2011. The Manitoba Renal Program Database served as the gold standard for confirming dialysis status. During the study period, 2562 patients were registered as recipients of chronic dialysis in the Manitoba Renal Program Database. Over a 1-year period (2010), the optimal case definition was any 2 claims for outpatient dialysis, and it was 74.6% sensitive (95% confidence interval [CI] 72.3%-76.9%) and 94.4% specific (95% CI 93.6%-95.2%) for the diagnosis of ESRD. In contrast, a case definition of at least 2 claims for dialysis treatment more than 90 days apart was 64.8% sensitive (95% CI 62.2%-67.3%) and 97.1% specific (95% CI 96.5%-97.7%). Extending the period to 5 years greatly improved sensitivity for all case definitions, with minimal change to specificity; for example, for the optimal case definition of any 2 claims for dialysis treatment, sensitivity increased to 86.0% (95% CI 84.7%-87.4%) at 5 years. Accurate case definitions for the diagnosis of ESRD requiring dialysis can be derived from administrative claims data. The optimal definition required any 2 claims for outpatient dialysis. Extending the claims period to 5 years greatly improved sensitivity with minimal effects on specificity for all case definitions.

  12. Performance evaluation of court in construction claims settlement of litigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayati, Kemala; Latief, Yusuf; Rarasati, Ayomi Dita; Siddik, Arief

    2017-06-01

    Claim construction has a major influence on the implementation of projects, such as the cost and time. The success of the construction project is highly dependent on the effective resolution of claims. Although it has been recognized that litigation or court is not the best way because it may reduce or eliminate profits and damage the relationship, it is a method of resolving claims and disputes that is common in the world of construction. The method of resolving claims and disputes through litigation or court may solve the problem in an alternative method, namely the implementation of the judgment which can be enforced effectively against the losing party and the ruling which has the force of law of the country where the claims and disputes are examined. However, litigation or court may take longer time and require high cost. Thus, it is necessary to identify factors affecting the performance of the court and to develop a system capable of improving an existing system in order to run more effectively and efficiently. Resolution in the claims management of construction projects with the method of litigation is a procedure that can be used by the courts in order to shorten the time in order to reduce the cost. The scope of this research is directed to all parties involved in the construction, both the owners and the contractors as implementers and practitioners, as well as experts who are experienced in construction law.

  13. Assessment of Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality Process Measures and Associated Costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brady, Brenna L; Tkacz, Joseph; Meyer, Roxanne; Bolge, Susan C; Ruetsch, Charles

    2017-02-01

    The objective was to examine the relationship between health care costs and quality in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Administrative claims were used to calculate 8 process measures for the treatment of RA. Associated health care costs were calculated for members who achieved or did not achieve each of the measures. Medical, pharmacy, and laboratory claims for RA patients (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification 714.x) were extracted from the Optum Clinformatics Datamart database for 2011. Individuals were predominately female and in their mid-fifties. Measure achievement ranged from 55.9% to 80.8%. The mean cost of care for members meeting the measure was $18,644; members who did not meet the measures had a mean cost of $14,973. Primary cost drivers were pharmacy and office expenses, accounting for 42.4% and 26.3% of total costs, respectively. Regression analyses revealed statistically significant associations between biologic usage, which was more prevalent in groups attaining measures, and total expenditure across all measures (Ps < 0.001). Pharmacy costs were similar between both groups. Individuals meeting the measures had a higher proportion of costs accounted for by office visits; those not meeting the measures had a higher proportion of costs from inpatient and outpatient visits. These findings suggest that increased quality may lead to lower inpatient and outpatient hospital costs. Yet, the overall cost of RA care is likely to remain high because of intensive pharmacotherapy regimens.

  14. Adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A database analysis of South African private health insurance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renata Schoeman

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD is a chronic, costly and debilitating disorder. In South Africa (SA, access to funding for care and treatment of ADHD is limited, and research is lacking. Aim: This study aimed to establish the current situation with regard to the psychiatric management of and funding for treatment of adult ADHD in the private sector in SA. Methods: A diagnostically refined retrospective claims database analysis was conducted. We examined the prevalence, costs and funding profile of claims over a 2-year period for adult beneficiaries with possible ADHD of a large medical administrator in SA. Results: The prevalence of adult ADHD was lower than published international rates. The presence of adult ADHD increased the prevalence of comorbidity and doubled the health care costs of beneficiaries. Contrary to public belief, comorbidities (including their medicine costs rather than psychiatric services or medicines were the main cost drivers. Conclusion: The current private health insurance funding model for ADHD limits access to funding. This affects early diagnosis and optimal treatment, thereby escalating long-term costs. Improved outcomes are possible if patients suffering from ADHD receive timely and accurate diagnosis, and receive chronic and comprehensive care. Balanced regulation is proposed to minimise the risk to both medical schemes and patients. A collaborative approach between stakeholders is needed to develop an alternative cost-effective funding model to improve access to treatment and quality of life for adults with ADHD in SA.

  15. Tibia shaft fractures: costly burden of nonunions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonova Evgeniya

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Tibia shaft fractures (TSF are common for men and women and cause substantial morbidity, healthcare use, and costs. The impact of nonunions on healthcare use and costs is poorly described. Our goal was to investigate patient characteristics and healthcare use and costs associated with TSF in patients with and without nonunion. Methods We retrospectively analyzed medical claims in large U.S. managed care claims databases (Thomson Reuters MarketScan®, 16 million lives. We studied patients ≥ 18 years old with a TSF diagnosis (ICD-9 codes: 823.20, 823.22, 823.30, 823.32 in 2006 with continuous pharmaceutical and medical benefit enrollment 1 year prior and 2 years post-fracture. Nonunion was defined by ICD-9 code 733.82 (after the TSF date. Results Among the 853 patients with TSF, 99 (12% had nonunion. Patients with nonunion had more comorbidities (30 vs. 21, pre-fracture and were more likely to have their TSF open (87% vs. 70% than those without nonunion. Patients with nonunion were more likely to have additional fractures during the 2-year follow-up (of lower limb [88.9% vs. 69.5%, P  Conclusions Nonunions in TSF’s are associated with substantial healthcare resource use, common use of strong opioids, and high per-patient costs. Open fractures are associated with higher likelihood of nonunion than closed ones. Effective screening of nonunion risk may decrease this morbidity and subsequent healthcare resource use and costs.

  16. 28 CFR 43.3 - Settlement and waiver of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Settlement and waiver of claims. 43.3 Section 43.3 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) RECOVERY OF COST OF HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CARE AND TREATMENT FURNISHED BY THE UNITED STATES § 43.3 Settlement and waiver of claims. (a) The...

  17. Clinical negligence claims in pediatric surgery in England: pattern and trends.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thyoka, Mandela

    2015-02-01

    We hypothesized that there has been an increase in the number of successful litigation claims in pediatric surgery in England. Our aim was to report the incidence, causes, and costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service (NHS) in relation to pediatric surgery. We queried the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) on litigation claims among children undergoing pediatric surgery in England (2004-2012). We decided a priori to only examine closed cases (decision and payment made). Data included year of claim, year of payment of claim, payment per claim, paid-to-closed ratio, and severity of outcome of clinical incident. Out of 112 clinical negligence claims in pediatric surgery, 93 (83%) were finalized-73 (65%) were settled and damages paid to the claimant and 20 (18%) were closed with no payment, and 19 (17%) remain open. The median payment was £13,537 (600-500,000) and median total cost borne by NHSLA was £31,445 (600-730,202). Claims were lodged at a median interval of 2 (0-13) years from time of occurrence with 55 (75%) cases being settled within the 3 years of being received. The commonest reasons for claims were postoperative complications (n=20, 28%), delayed treatment (n=16, 22%), and/or diagnosis (n=14, 19%). Out of 73, 17 (23%) closed claims resulted in case fatality. Conclusion: Two-thirds of all claims in pediatric surgery resulted in payment to claimant, and the commonest reasons for claims were postoperative complications, delayed treatment, and/or diagnosis. Nearly a quarter of successful claims were in cases where negligence resulted in case fatality. Pediatric surgeons should be aware of common diagnostic and treatment shortfalls as high-risk areas of increased susceptibility to clinical negligence claims. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  18. Duloxetine compliance and its association with healthcare costs among patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, N; Chen, S; Boulanger, L; Fraser, K; Bledsoe, S L; Zhao, Y

    2009-09-01

    Duloxetine is approved to treat diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP) in the US. The study objective was to examine the predictors of duloxetine compliance, and its association with healthcare costs among DPNP patients. The study used administrative claims databases to identify non-depressed DPNP patients with a duloxetine prescription dispensed between October 1, 2004 and December 31, 2006. Two cohorts of patients were constructed based on compliance to duloxetine therapy over 1-year follow-up with high compliance defined as a medication possession ratio (MPR) > or =0.80. All-cause, diabetes-, and DPNP-related healthcare costs during 1-year follow-up were estimated. Logistic regressions were performed to examine how average daily dose (ADD) of duloxetine and other factors may influence compliance. Multivariate regressions were estimated to examine the association between compliance and healthcare costs. The study included 1,380 commercially insured (mean age 55 years) and 974 patients with employer-sponsored Medicare supplemental insurance (mean age 75 years). In both populations, patients with an ADD >30 mg were more likely to be compliant with the therapy compared with those with an ADD of compliance patients had greater all-cause ($5,334, pcosts ($3,414, pcompliance patients, with the biggest difference from inpatient costs (all-cause: $7,508; diabetes-related: $3,785, all pcosts were not significant. DPNP patients with a higher ADD of duloxetine over a 1-year follow-up period were more compliant with the therapy. Duloxetine patients with high compliance were also associated with lower healthcare costs. Due to the use of a retrospective cohort design on administrative claims database, limitations of this analysis include a lack of formal diagnostic testing of patients, and inability to infer causality or measure factors such as DPNP severity that are not captured in such database.

  19. 23 CFR 140.505 - Reimbursable costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Reimbursable costs. 140.505 Section 140.505 Highways... Administrative Settlement Costs-Contract Claims § 140.505 Reimbursable costs. (a) Federal funds may participate in administrative settlement costs which are: (1) Incurred after notice of claim, (2) Properly...

  20. Characteristics, Treatment Patterns, and Economic Outcomes of Patients Initiating Injectable Medications for Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Japan: Results from a Retrospective Claims Database Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suzuki, Shuichi; Desai, Urvi; Strizek, Alena; Ivanova, Jasmina; Garcia-Horton, Viviana; Cai, Zhihong; Schmerold, Luke; Liu, Xinyue; Perez-Nieves, Magaly

    2018-04-16

    This study's objective was to describe characteristics, treatment patterns, and economic outcomes of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients initiating injectable antidiabetic medications in Japan. Adults (≥ 18 years) with T2DM, ≥ 2 claims for injectable antidiabetics between 1 August 2011 and 31 July 2015 (first claim = index date), no evidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus, ≤ 1 claim for insulin, no claims for GLP-1RA before index, and continuous enrollment for 6 months before (baseline) and 12 months after index (follow-up) were selected from the Japan Medical Center Database. Patient characteristics and outcomes during the baseline and follow-up periods were described overall and by provider, using the proxy setting of index medication [hospital (including outpatient departments) for specialists; clinic for general practitioner (GP)]. Of the 2683 patients included (mean age: 50 years, 67% male), 1879 (70%) initiated injectable antidiabetics with specialists and 804 (30%) with GPs. The specialist cohort had a significantly greater comorbidity burden, but lower HbA1c levels during baseline, and was more likely to receive intensified treatment at index than the GP cohort. Almost 40% of patients (almost 30% of GP cohort) did not use antidiabetics during baseline; the remaining patients received oral medications, primarily from GPs. During follow-up, patients used the index medication for approximately 7 months. Independent of specialist vs. GP setting, patients received antidiabetics and medications for T2DM-related comorbidities and complications during the baseline and follow-up periods from the same provider, primarily GPs. The overall average healthcare costs were ¥350,404 during baseline and ¥1,856,727 during follow-up. In Japan, most T2DM patients initiated injectable antidiabetics with specialists vs. GPs. There were considerable differences in characteristics of patients treated by specialists vs. GPs. After initiation, injectable

  1. How nuclear liability practices have been implemented in US. US nuclear claims experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bardes, C.R.

    2000-01-01

    Three Mile Island has been only major nuclear incident in US involving a power plant that resulted in payments to public. In addition to Three Mile Island, there have been only 3 lawsuits by members of the public against nuclear power plant operators; these alleged bodily injury and property damage resulting from normal operations. Of 202 claims handled by ANI, 161 involved individual nuclear facilities workers. Costs of the worker claims (through 1998) was US $1.5 million for indemnity (losses) and US$35.9 million for legal defense costs. By far, 1979 TMI accident produced largest number of third-party claims. ANI's emergency claims handling procedure for large nuclear accident tested and proved itself at Three Mile Island

  2. Cluster analysis and its application to healthcare claims data: a study of end-stage renal disease patients who initiated hemodialysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, Minlei; Li, Yunfeng; Kianifard, Farid; Obi, Engels; Arcona, Stephen

    2016-03-02

    Cluster analysis (CA) is a frequently used applied statistical technique that helps to reveal hidden structures and "clusters" found in large data sets. However, this method has not been widely used in large healthcare claims databases where the distribution of expenditure data is commonly severely skewed. The purpose of this study was to identify cost change patterns of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who initiated hemodialysis (HD) by applying different clustering methods. A retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using the Truven Health MarketScan® Research Databases. Patients aged ≥18 years with ≥2 ESRD diagnoses who initiated HD between 2008 and 2010 were included. The K-means CA method and hierarchical CA with various linkage methods were applied to all-cause costs within baseline (12-months pre-HD) and follow-up periods (12-months post-HD) to identify clusters. Demographic, clinical, and cost information was extracted from both periods, and then examined by cluster. A total of 18,380 patients were identified. Meaningful all-cause cost clusters were generated using K-means CA and hierarchical CA with either flexible beta or Ward's methods. Based on cluster sample sizes and change of cost patterns, the K-means CA method and 4 clusters were selected: Cluster 1: Average to High (n = 113); Cluster 2: Very High to High (n = 89); Cluster 3: Average to Average (n = 16,624); or Cluster 4: Increasing Costs, High at Both Points (n = 1554). Median cost changes in the 12-month pre-HD and post-HD periods increased from $185,070 to $884,605 for Cluster 1 (Average to High), decreased from $910,930 to $157,997 for Cluster 2 (Very High to High), were relatively stable and remained low from $15,168 to $13,026 for Cluster 3 (Average to Average), and increased from $57,909 to $193,140 for Cluster 4 (Increasing Costs, High at Both Points). Relatively stable costs after starting HD were associated with more stable scores

  3. Mediation as an alternative solution to medical malpractice court claims

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neels Claassen

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Is there a crisis in the healthcare industry? Most certainly there is. Dr Motsoaledi, Minister of Health, publicly acknowledged the existence of such a crisis at a Medico-Legal Summit held at his initiative in Pretoria on 9 and 10 March 2015 at St Georges Hotel.[1] Currently, as recently confirmed by the MEC for Health, Ms Mahlangu, there are about 2 000 pending court cases against the Gauteng Provincial Health Department, the total quantum being claimed amounting to approximately ZAR 3.5 billion. During 2013/2014 this department spent about ZAR 256 million on legal costs payable to claimants’ attorneys. No budget for these expenses exists, resulting in payment being made from funds designated for the acquisition of medical equipment and other purposes.[1] This undermines the department’s ability to renew old equipment and upgrade to more modern equipment, resulting in even further claims. More claims are therefore to be expected. The Medical Protection Society also confirmed an increase in medical malpractice claims against their members of nearly 550% compared to 10 years ago. The quantum of claims that exceeded ZAR 5 million per claim, also increased by 900%.[2,3] The ripple effect of these increases in medico-legal claims causes insurance premiums for healthcare professionals to become exorbitantly expensive, resulting in some practitioners leaving the medical profession. Practitioners also act more defensively in applying their trade, resulting in additional and sometimes unnecessary tests that increase the costs of medical care and often cause further grounds for the institution of claims.

  4. Occupational eye injury and risk reduction: Kentucky workers' compensation claim analysis 1994-2003.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCall, B P; Horwitz, I B; Taylor, O A

    2009-06-01

    Occupational eye injuries are a significant source of injury in the workplace. Little population-based research in the area has been conducted, and is necessary for developing and prioritizing effective interventions. Workers' compensation data from the state of Kentucky for the years 1994-2003 were analysed by demographics, injury nature and cause, cost, and occupational and industrial characteristics. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey was utilised to compute injury rates for demographic and occupational groups. There were 10,545 claims of ocular injury, representing 6.29 claims per 10,000 workers on average annually. A substantial drop in the claim rate was found after the state passed monetary penalties for injuries caused by employer negligence or OSHA violations. Claims by men were over three times more likely than those by women to have associated claim costs (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.32 to 0.85; p = 0.009). The highest eye injury rates per 10,000 of 13.46 (95% CI 12.86 to 14.07) were found for the helpers/labourers occupation, and of 19.95 (95% CI 18.73 to 21.17) for the construction industry. The total cost of claim payments over the period was over $3,480,000, and average cost per claim approximated $331. Eye injuries remain a significant risk to worker health, especially among men in jobs requiring intensive manual labour. Evidence showed that increased legislative regulation led to a decline in eye injuries, which was consistent with other recent findings in the area. Additionally, targeting groups most at risk, increasing worker training, providing effective eye protection equipment, and developing workplace safety cultures may together reduce occupational eye injuries.

  5. Questioning the claims from Kaiser.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Talbot-Smith, Alison; Gnani, Shamini; Pollock, Allyson M; Gray, Denis Pereira

    2004-06-01

    The article by Feachem et al, published in the BMJ in 2002, claimed to show that, compared with the United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS), the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system in the United States (US) has similar healthcare costs per capita, and performance that is considerably better in certain respects. To assess the accuracy of Feachem et al's comparison and conclusions. Detailed re-examination of the data and methods used and consideration of the 82 letters responding to the article. Analyses revealed four main areas in which Feachem et al's methodology was flawed. Firstly, the populations of patients served by Kaiser Permanente and by the NHS are fundamentally different. Kaiser's patients are mainly employed, significantly younger, and significantly less socially deprived and so are healthier. Feachem et al fail to adjust adequately for these factors. Secondly, Feachem et al have wrongly inflated NHS costs by omitting substantial user charges payable by Kaiser members for care, excluding the costs of marketing and administration, and deducting the surplus from Kaiser's costs while underestimating the capital charge element of the NHS budget and other costs. They also used two methods of converting currency, the currency rate and a health purchasing power parity conversion. This is double counting. Feachem et al reported that NHS costs were 10% less per head than Kaiser. Correcting for the double currency conversion gives the NHS a 40% cost advantage such that per capita costs are 1161 dollars and 1951 dollars for the NHS and Kaiser, respectively. Thirdly, Feachem et al use non-standardised data for NHS bed days from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, rather than official Department of Health bed availability and activity statistics for England. Leaving aside the non-comparability of the population and lack of standardisation of the data, the result is to inflate NHS acute bed use and underestimate the efficiency of

  6. The art of directing a workers' compensation claim: personal observations on the role of the workers' compensation claim adjuster.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wendt, Chris; Emmett, Ted

    2004-05-01

    Workers' compensation claims are becoming more complex and expensive every day. One of the contributing factors for the increase is the aging workforce as well as federal legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The workforce is aging, mobile, and educated about their rights. The key to avoiding spiraling costs is a strong safety and claims program that is sponsored by senior management,valued by the employees, and implemented by the entire company.

  7. A retrospective analysis of the duration of oral antibiotic therapy for the treatment of acne among adolescents: investigating practice gaps and potential cost-savings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Young H; Liu, Guodong; Thiboutot, Diane M; Leslie, Douglas L; Kirby, Joslyn S

    2014-07-01

    Duration of oral antibiotic therapy in acne has not been widely studied. Recent guidelines suggest it should be limited to 3 to 6 months. We sought to compare the duration of oral antibiotic use with recent guidelines and determine the potential cost-savings related to shortened durations. This is a retrospective cohort study from the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database. Claims data were used to determine duration and costs of antibiotic therapy. The mean course duration was 129 days. The majority (93%) of courses were less than 9 months. Among the 31,634 courses, 18,280 (57.8%) did not include concomitant topical retinoid therapy. The mean (95% confidence interval) duration with and without topical retinoid use was 133 (131.5-134.7) days and 127 (125.4-127.9) days, respectively. The mean excess direct cost of antibiotic treatment for longer than 6 months was $580.99/person. Claims cannot be attributed to a specific diagnosis or provider. The database does not provide information on acne severity. Duration of antibiotic use is decreasing when compared with previous data. However, 5547 (17.53%) courses exceeded 6 months, highlighting an opportunity for reduced antibiotic use. If courses greater than 6 months were shortened to 6 months, savings would be $580.99/person. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. 32 CFR 536.120 - Claims payable as maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Claims payable as maritime claims. 536.120... ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.120 Claims payable as maritime claims. A claim is cognizable under this subpart if it arises in or on a maritime location, involves some...

  9. Indirect costs and workplace productivity loss associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Justin S; Hansen, Ryan N; Valderrama, Adriana; Carlson, Josh J

    2016-11-01

    The objective of this study was to examine indirect costs and workplace productivity loss (defined as an aggregate measure of absenteeism, short-term disability, and long-term disability days) associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from a societal perspective in a commercially insured working-age United States population. The MarketScan(®) Commercial Claims and Encounters and Health and Productivity Management Databases (2007-2013) were used in this study, with controls matched 3:1 to NHL patients. In comparison to controls, NHL patients incurred significantly more workplace productivity loss (31.99 days; 95% CI: 25.24 days, 38.73 days; p workplace productivity and higher associated indirect costs.

  10. The risk of malignancy among biologic-naïve pediatric psoriasis patients: A retrospective cohort study in a US claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Yun; Nordstrom, Beth L

    2017-08-01

    Little published literature exists regarding malignancy risk in pediatric psoriasis patients. To compare malignancy risk in biologic-naïve pediatric psoriasis patients with a matched pediatric population without psoriasis. This retrospective cohort study used IMS LifeLink Health Plan Claims data covering 1998-2008. Cancer incidence was compared with the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data using standardized incidence ratios (SIR), and between cohorts using Cox models. Among 9045 pediatric psoriasis patients and 77,206 comparators, 18 probable or highly probable cancers were identified. Pediatric psoriasis patients had a nonsignificantly lower incidence than comparators (hazard ratio [HR] 0.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.05-3.54). The HR increased to 1.67 (95% CI 0.54-5.18) when cancer diagnosed during the first 90 days of follow-up was included. The pediatric psoriasis cohort had a significantly increased lymphoma rate compared with SEER (SIR 5.42, 95% CI 1.62-12.94), but no significant increase relative to the comparator cohort. Misclassification of disease and outcome might have occurred with patients in the claims database. Patients with pediatric psoriasis showed no significant increase in overall cancer risk compared with those without psoriasis. A potential increased risk for lymphoma was observed when compared with the general population. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF ACROMEGALY IN THE UNITED STATES: A CLAIMS-BASED ANALYSIS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broder, Michael S; Chang, Eunice; Cherepanov, Dasha; Neary, Maureen P; Ludlam, William H

    2016-11-01

    Acromegaly, a rare endocrine disorder, results from excessive growth hormone secretion, leading to multisystem-associated morbidities. Using 2 large nationwide databases, we estimated the annual incidence and prevalence of acromegaly in the U.S. We used 2008 to 2013 data from the Truven Health MarketScan ® Commercial Claims and Encounters Database and IMS Health PharMetrics healthcare insurance claims databases, with health plan enrollees acromegaly (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification Code [ICD-9CM] 253.0), or 1 claim with acromegaly and 1 claim for pituitary tumor, pituitary surgery, or cranial stereotactic radiosurgery. Annual incidence was calculated for each year from 2009 to 2013, and prevalence in 2013. Estimates were stratified by age and sex. Incidence was up to 11.7 cases per million person-years (PMPY) in MarketScan and 9.6 cases PMPY in PharMetrics. Rates were similar by sex but typically lowest in ≤17 year olds and higher in >24 year olds. The prevalence estimates were 87.8 and 71.0 per million per year in MarketScan and PharMetrics, respectively. Prevalence consistently increased with age but was similar by sex in each database. The current U.S. incidence of acromegaly may be up to 4 times higher and prevalence may be up to 50% higher than previously reported in European studies. Our findings correspond with the estimates reported by a recent U.S. study that used a single managed care database, supporting the robustness of these estimates in this population. Our study indicates there are approximately 3,000 new cases of acromegaly per year, with a prevalence of about 25,000 acromegaly patients in the U.S. CT = computed tomography GH = growth hormone IGF-1 = insulin-like growth factor 1 ICD-9-CM Code = International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification Codes MRI = magnetic resonance imaging PMPY = per million person-years.

  12. Compensation culture reviewed: incentives to claim and damages levels

    OpenAIRE

    Lewis, Richard Kurt

    2014-01-01

    This article reviews some recent developments which have affected the debate concerning ‘compensation culture.’ It focuses upon the number of claims and the cost of claims, looking especially at the level of damages. The role of insurers and the changing nature of personal injury practice are also discussed. The conclusion is that issues arising from the debate will continue for some time to come.

  13. Leveraging Real-World Evidence in Disease-Management Decision-Making with a Total Cost of Care Estimator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Thanh-Nghia; Trocio, Jeffrey; Kowal, Stacey; Ferrufino, Cheryl P; Munakata, Julie; South, Dell

    2016-12-01

    Health management is becoming increasingly complex, given a range of care options and the need to balance costs and quality. The ability to measure and understand drivers of costs is critical for healthcare organizations to effectively manage their patient populations. Healthcare decision makers can leverage real-world evidence to explore the value of disease-management interventions in shifting total cost trends. To develop a real-world, evidence-based estimator that examines the impact of disease-management interventions on the total cost of care (TCoC) for a patient population with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). Data were collected from a patient-level real-world evidence data set that uses the IMS PharMetrics Health Plan Claims Database. Pharmacy and medical claims for patients meeting the inclusion or exclusion criteria were combined in longitudinal cohorts with a 180-day preindex and 360-day follow-up period. Descriptive statistics, such as mean and median patient costs and event rates, were derived from a real-world evidence analysis and were used to populate the base-case estimates within the TCoC estimator, an exploratory economic model that was designed to estimate the potential impact of several disease-management activities on the TCoC for a patient population with NVAF. Using Microsoft Excel, the estimator is designed to compare current direct costs of medical care to projected costs by varying assumptions on the impact of disease-management activities and applying the associated changes in cost trends to the affected populations. Disease-management levers are derived from literature-based concepts affecting costs along the NVAF disease continuum. The use of the estimator supports analyses across 4 US geographic regions, age, cost types, and care settings during 1 year. All patients included in the study were continuously enrolled in their health plan (within the IMS PharMetrics Health Plan Claims Database) between July 1, 2010, and June 30

  14. ADA perceived disability claims: a decision-tree analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Draper, William R; Hawley, Carolyn E; McMahon, Brian T; Reid, Christine A; Barbir, Lara A

    2014-06-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine the possible interactions of predictor variables pertaining to perceived disability claims contained in a large governmental database. Specifically, it is a retrospective analysis of US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) data for the entire population of workplace discrimination claims based on the "regarded as disabled" prong of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) definition of disability. The study utilized records extracted from a "master database" of over two million charges of workplace discrimination in the Integrated Mission System of the EEOC. This database includes all ADA-related discrimination allegations filed from July 26, 1992 through December 31, 2008. Chi squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID) was employed to analyze interaction effects of relevant variables, such as issue (grievance) and industry type. The research question addressed by CHAID is: What combination of factors are associated with merit outcomes for people making ADA EEOC allegations who are "regarded as" having disabilities? The CHAID analysis shows how merit outcome is predicted by the interaction of relevant variables. Issue was found to be the most prominent variable in determining merit outcome, followed by industry type, but the picture is made more complex by qualifications regarding age and race data. Although discharge was the most frequent grievance among charging parties in the perceived disability group, its merit outcome was significantly less than that for the leading factor of hiring.

  15. Phynx: an open source software solution supporting data management and web-based patient-level data review for drug safety studies in the general practice research database and other health care databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egbring, Marco; Kullak-Ublick, Gerd A; Russmann, Stefan

    2010-01-01

    To develop a software solution that supports management and clinical review of patient data from electronic medical records databases or claims databases for pharmacoepidemiological drug safety studies. We used open source software to build a data management system and an internet application with a Flex client on a Java application server with a MySQL database backend. The application is hosted on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. This solution named Phynx supports data management, Web-based display of electronic patient information, and interactive review of patient-level information in the individual clinical context. This system was applied to a dataset from the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD). Our solution can be setup and customized with limited programming resources, and there is almost no extra cost for software. Access times are short, the displayed information is structured in chronological order and visually attractive, and selected information such as drug exposure can be blinded. External experts can review patient profiles and save evaluations and comments via a common Web browser. Phynx provides a flexible and economical solution for patient-level review of electronic medical information from databases considering the individual clinical context. It can therefore make an important contribution to an efficient validation of outcome assessment in drug safety database studies.

  16. Incorporating the Last Four Digits of Social Security Numbers Substantially Improves Linking Patient Data from De-identified Hospital Claims Databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naessens, James M; Visscher, Sue L; Peterson, Stephanie M; Swanson, Kristi M; Johnson, Matthew G; Rahman, Parvez A; Schindler, Joe; Sonneborn, Mark; Fry, Donald E; Pine, Michael

    2015-08-01

    Assess algorithms for linking patients across de-identified databases without compromising confidentiality. Hospital discharges from 11 Mayo Clinic hospitals during January 2008-September 2012 (assessment and validation data). Minnesota death certificates and hospital discharges from 2009 to 2012 for entire state (application data). Cross-sectional assessment of sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) for four linking algorithms tested by identifying readmissions and posthospital mortality on the assessment data with application to statewide data. De-identified claims included patient gender, birthdate, and zip code. Assessment records were matched with institutional sources containing unique identifiers and the last four digits of Social Security number (SSNL4). Gender, birthdate, and five-digit zip code identified readmissions with a sensitivity of 98.0 percent and a PPV of 97.7 percent and identified postdischarge mortality with 84.4 percent sensitivity and 98.9 percent PPV. Inclusion of SSNL4 produced nearly perfect identification of readmissions and deaths. When applied statewide, regions bordering states with unavailable hospital discharge data had lower rates. Addition of SSNL4 to administrative data, accompanied by appropriate data use and data release policies, can enable trusted repositories to link data with nearly perfect accuracy without compromising patient confidentiality. States maintaining centralized de-identified databases should add SSNL4 to data specifications. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

  17. HEALTH INFO SANTÉ – REMINDER ANNUAL DEDUCTIBLE AND REIMBURSEMENT CLAIMS HINTS FOR USE

    CERN Multimedia

    CHIS Board

    2000-01-01

    Information from the CHIS Board and the Human Resources Division:Annual deductible and reimbursement claims: hints for useOne should bear in mind that the annual deductible is an amount (currently CHF 100) charged automatically by the Administrator of the scheme for every adult aged 18 and above. This is what happens: The amount is deducted annually for all medical services received over a calendar year.It is triggered by the date of the treatment and neither by the date of the bill nor that of the reimbursement claim.In other words, if you receive medical treatment in December for the first time in a given year, the CHF 100 will be deducted from the claim for that treatment. So, except for urgent cases, it would be better to wait till the following month, thus avoiding one annual deductible.It is also worth remembering that the cost of processing our reimbursement claims - and there were 54, 000 in 1999 - is part of the cost of our insurance.Help keep administrative costs down: do not submit reimbursement cl...

  18. The estimated economic burden of genital herpes in the United States. An analysis using two costing approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fisman David N

    2001-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Only limited data exist on the costs of genital herpes (GH in the USA. We estimated the economic burden of GH in the USA using two different costing approaches. Methods The first approach was a cross-sectional survey of a sample of primary and secondary care physicians, analyzing health care resource utilization. The second approach was based on the analysis of a large administrative claims data set. Both approaches were used to generate the number of patients with symptomatic GH seeking medical treatment, the average medical expenditures and estimated national costs. Costs were valued from a societal and a third party payer's perspective in 1996 US dollars. Results In the cross-sectional study, based on an estimated 3.1 million symptomatic episodes per year in the USA, the annual direct medical costs were estimated at a maximum of $984 million. Of these costs, 49.7% were caused by drug expenditures, 47.7% by outpatient medical care and 2.6% by hospital costs. Indirect costs accounted for further $214 million. The analysis of 1,565 GH cases from the claims database yielded a minimum national estimate of $283 million direct medical costs. Conclusions GH appears to be an important public health problem from the health economic point of view. The observed difference in direct medical costs may be explained with the influence of compliance to treatment and possible undersampling of subpopulations in the claims data set. The present study demonstrates the validity of using different approaches in estimating the economic burden of a specific disease to the health care system.

  19. 50 CFR 296.5 - Instructions for filing claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... method of position fixing available to the claimant, (vi) A description of the item or obstruction (if... cost. (6) The amount claimed for economic loss and the basis for that amount with supporting...

  20. Comparison of Cloud vs. Tape Backup Performance and Costs with Oracle Database

    OpenAIRE

    Zrnec, Aljaž; Lavbič, Dejan

    2011-01-01

    Current practice of backing up data is based on using backup tapes and remote locations for storing data. Nowadays, with the advent of cloud computing a new concept of database backup emerges. The paper presents the possibility of making backup copies of data in the cloud. We are mainly focused on performance and economic issues of making backups in the cloud in comparison to traditional backups. We tested the performance and overall costs of making backup copies of data in Ora...

  1. Direct healthcare costs of selected diseases primarily or partially transmitted by water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collier, S A; Stockman, L J; Hicks, L A; Garrison, L E; Zhou, F J; Beach, M J

    2012-11-01

    Despite US sanitation advancements, millions of waterborne disease cases occur annually, although the precise burden of disease is not well quantified. Estimating the direct healthcare cost of specific infections would be useful in prioritizing waterborne disease prevention activities. Hospitalization and outpatient visit costs per case and total US hospitalization costs for ten waterborne diseases were calculated using large healthcare claims and hospital discharge databases. The five primarily waterborne diseases in this analysis (giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, Legionnaires' disease, otitis externa, and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection) were responsible for over 40 000 hospitalizations at a cost of $970 million per year, including at least $430 million in hospitalization costs for Medicaid and Medicare patients. An additional 50 000 hospitalizations for campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, haemolytic uraemic syndrome, and toxoplasmosis cost $860 million annually ($390 million in payments for Medicaid and Medicare patients), a portion of which can be assumed to be due to waterborne transmission.

  2. Development and validation of an algorithm for identifying urinary retention in a cohort of patients with epilepsy in a large US administrative claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quinlan, Scott C; Cheng, Wendy Y; Ishihara, Lianna; Irizarry, Michael C; Holick, Crystal N; Duh, Mei Sheng

    2016-04-01

    The aim of this study was to develop and validate an insurance claims-based algorithm for identifying urinary retention (UR) in epilepsy patients receiving antiepileptic drugs to facilitate safety monitoring. Data from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database(SM) in 2008-2011 (retrospective) and 2012-2013 (prospective) were used to identify epilepsy patients with UR. During the retrospective phase, three algorithms identified potential UR: (i) UR diagnosis code with a catheterization procedure code; (ii) UR diagnosis code alone; or (iii) diagnosis with UR-related symptoms. Medical records for 50 randomly selected patients satisfying ≥1 algorithm were reviewed by urologists to ascertain UR status. Positive predictive value (PPV) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for the three component algorithms and the overall algorithm (defined as satisfying ≥1 component algorithms). Algorithms were refined using urologist review notes. In the prospective phase, the UR algorithm was refined using medical records for an additional 150 cases. In the retrospective phase, the PPV of the overall algorithm was 72.0% (95%CI: 57.5-83.8%). Algorithm 3 performed poorly and was dropped. Algorithm 1 was unchanged; urinary incontinence and cystitis were added as exclusionary diagnoses to Algorithm 2. The PPV for the modified overall algorithm was 89.2% (74.6-97.0%). In the prospective phase, the PPV for the modified overall algorithm was 76.0% (68.4-82.6%). Upon adding overactive bladder, nocturia and urinary frequency as exclusionary diagnoses, the PPV for the final overall algorithm was 81.9% (73.7-88.4%). The current UR algorithm yielded a PPV > 80% and could be used for more accurate identification of UR among epilepsy patients in a large claims database. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  3. Duration of oral antibiotic therapy for the treatment of adult acne: a retrospective analysis investigating adherence to guideline recommendations and opportunities for cost-savings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straight, Chelsey E; Lee, Young H; Liu, Guodong; Kirby, Joslyn S

    2015-05-01

    The duration of oral antibiotic acne therapy for adolescents compared with guidelines was recently investigated; however it was uncertain if duration of antibiotics for adult acne therapy differed. This study aimed to evaluate duration of oral antibiotics for adult acne compared with guidelines and determine possible cost-savings. This was a retrospective cohort study of MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database that incorporated claims data to determine duration and costs of antibiotic treatment among adults ages 21 years and older. Of 17,448 courses, 84.5% (14,737) aligned with duration guidelines, although 12,040 (69.0%) courses did not include concomitant topical retinoid therapy. Mean savings of $592.26 per person could result if prolonged courses met guidelines. Mean (median) costs of generic and branded formulations for the most frequent course duration (90-179 days) were $103.77 ($54.27) and $1421.61 ($1462.25), respectively. Actual patient prescription adherence is uncertain and database lacks information regarding acne severity, patient physical characteristics, and clinical outcomes. The majority of oral antibiotic course durations follow guidelines, although topical retinoids are underused. Costs of antibiotic therapy were lower for shorter courses and those using generic medications; the cost-effectiveness of these modifications has not been investigated. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. In-hospital costs associated with chronic constipation in Belgium: a retrospective database study

    OpenAIRE

    Chevalier, P; Lamotte, M; Joseph, A; Dubois, D; Boeckxstaens, G

    2013-01-01

    Background Real-life data on the economic burden of chronic idiopathic constipation are scarce. The objectives of this study were to assess hospitalization resource use and costs associated with chronic constipation and its complications in Belgium. Methods This was a single country, retrospective study using the IMS Hospital Disease Database (2008), which comprises data on 34% of acute hospital beds in Belgium and contains information on patient demographics, length of stay (LOS), billed cos...

  5. Ontological interpretation of biomedical database content.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santana da Silva, Filipe; Jansen, Ludger; Freitas, Fred; Schulz, Stefan

    2017-06-26

    Biological databases store data about laboratory experiments, together with semantic annotations, in order to support data aggregation and retrieval. The exact meaning of such annotations in the context of a database record is often ambiguous. We address this problem by grounding implicit and explicit database content in a formal-ontological framework. By using a typical extract from the databases UniProt and Ensembl, annotated with content from GO, PR, ChEBI and NCBI Taxonomy, we created four ontological models (in OWL), which generate explicit, distinct interpretations under the BioTopLite2 (BTL2) upper-level ontology. The first three models interpret database entries as individuals (IND), defined classes (SUBC), and classes with dispositions (DISP), respectively; the fourth model (HYBR) is a combination of SUBC and DISP. For the evaluation of these four models, we consider (i) database content retrieval, using ontologies as query vocabulary; (ii) information completeness; and, (iii) DL complexity and decidability. The models were tested under these criteria against four competency questions (CQs). IND does not raise any ontological claim, besides asserting the existence of sample individuals and relations among them. Modelling patterns have to be created for each type of annotation referent. SUBC is interpreted regarding maximally fine-grained defined subclasses under the classes referred to by the data. DISP attempts to extract truly ontological statements from the database records, claiming the existence of dispositions. HYBR is a hybrid of SUBC and DISP and is more parsimonious regarding expressiveness and query answering complexity. For each of the four models, the four CQs were submitted as DL queries. This shows the ability to retrieve individuals with IND, and classes in SUBC and HYBR. DISP does not retrieve anything because the axioms with disposition are embedded in General Class Inclusion (GCI) statements. Ambiguity of biological database content is

  6. 32 CFR 536.121 - Claims not payable as maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Claims not payable as maritime claims. 536.121... ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.121 Claims not payable as maritime claims... (except at (e) and (k)), and 536.46; (b) Are not maritime in nature; (c) Are not in the best interests of...

  7. Estimation of National Colorectal-Cancer Incidence Using Claims Databases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quantin, C.; Benzenine, E.; Hagi, M.; Auverlot, B.; Cottenet, J.; Binquet, M.; Compain, D.

    2012-01-01

    The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of the colorectal-cancer incidence estimated from administrative data. Methods. We selected potential incident colorectal-cancer cases in 2004-2005 French administrative data, using two alternative algorithms. The first was based only on diagnostic and procedure codes, whereas the second considered the past history of the patient. Results of both methods were assessed against two corresponding local cancer registries, acting as “gold standards.” We then constructed a multivariable regression model to estimate the corrected total number of incident colorectal-cancer cases from the whole national administrative database. Results. The first algorithm provided an estimated local incidence very close to that given by the regional registries (646 versus 645 incident cases) and had good sensitivity and positive predictive values (about 75% for both). The second algorithm overestimated the incidence by about 50% and had a poor positive predictive value of about 60%. The estimation of national incidence obtained by the first algorithm differed from that observed in 14 registries by only 2.34%. Conclusion. This study shows the usefulness of administrative databases for countries with no national cancer registry and suggests a method for correcting the estimates provided by these data.

  8. its risks and the cost of addressing them

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    complications and some of the costs for caring for the child. The latter is a classic claim in medical negligence not dissimilar to any claim for the financial consequences of a delayed or missed diagnosis. The former is a claim by the parents for wrongful birth, holding the defendant responsible for the extra costs of raising the ...

  9. Healthfulness and nutritional composition of Canadian prepackaged foods with and without sugar claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernstein, Jodi T; Franco-Arellano, Beatriz; Schermel, Alyssa; Labonté, Marie-Ève; L'Abbé, Mary R

    2017-11-01

    The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in calories, nutrient content, overall healthfulness, and use of sweetener ingredients between products with and without sugar claims. Consumers assume products with sugar claims are healthier and lower in calories. It is therefore important claims be found on comparatively healthier items. This study is a cross-sectional analysis of the University of Toronto's 2013 Food Label Database. Subcategories where at least 5% of products (and n ≥ 5) carried a sugar claim were included (n = 3048). Differences in median calorie content, nutrient content, and overall healthfulness, using the Food Standards Australia/New Zealand Nutrient Profiling Scoring criterion, between products with and without sugar claims, were determined. Proportion of products with and without claims that had excess free sugar levels (≥10% of calories from free sugar) and that contained sweeteners was also determined. Almost half (48%) of products with sugar claims contained excess free sugar, and a greater proportion contained sweeteners than products without such claims (30% vs 5%, χ 2 = 338.6, p contents than products without claims. At the subcategory level, reductions in free sugar contents were not always met with similar reductions in calorie contents. This study highlights concerns with regards to the nutritional composition of products bearing sugar claims. Findings can support educational messaging to assist consumer interpretation of sugar claims and can inform changes in nutrition policies, for example, permitting sugar claims only on products with calorie reductions and without excess free sugar.

  10. 32 CFR 536.129 - Claims cognizable as UCMJ claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Personnel Claims Act and chapter 11 of AR 27-20, which provides compensation only for tangible personal... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Claims cognizable as UCMJ claims. 536.129 Section 536.129 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS...

  11. Cost of opioid intravenous patient-controlled analgesia: results from a hospital database analysis and literature assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Palmer P

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Pamela Palmer,1 Xiang Ji,2 Jennifer Stephens21AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Redwood City, CA, 2Pharmerit International, Bethesda, MD, USABackground: Intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA equipment and opioid cost analyses on specific procedures are lacking. This study estimates the intravenous PCA hospital cost for the first 48 postoperative hours for three inpatient surgeries.Methods: Descriptive analyses using the Premier database (2010–2012 of more than 500 US hospitals were conducted on cost (direct acquisition and indirect cost for the hospital, such as overhead, labor, pharmacy services of intravenous PCA after total knee/hip arthroplasty (TKA/THA or open abdominal surgery. Weighted average cost of equipment and opioid drug and the literature-based cost of adverse events and complications were aggregated for total costs.Results: Of 11,805,513 patients, 272,443 (2.3%, 139,275 (1.2%, and 195,062 (1.7% had TKA, THA, and abdominal surgery, respectively, with approximately 20% of orthopedic and 29% of abdominal patients having specific intravenous PCA database cost entries. Morphine (57% and hydromorphone (44% were the most frequently used PCA drugs, with a mean cost per 30 cc syringe of $16 (30 mg and $21 (6 mg, respectively. The mean number of syringes used for morphine and hydromorphone in the first 48 hours were 1.9 and 3.2 (TKA, 2.0 and 4.2 (THA, and 2.5 and 3.9 (abdominal surgery, respectively. Average costs of PCA pump, intravenous tubing set, and drug ranged from $46 to $48, from $20 to $22, and from $33 to $46, respectively. Pump, tubing, and saline required to maintain patency of the intravenous PCA catheter over 48 hours ranged from $9 to $13, from $8 to $9, and from $20 to $22, respectively. Supplemental non-PCA opioid use ranged from $56 for THA to $87 for abdominal surgery. Aggregated mean intravenous PCA equipment and opioid cost per patient were $196 (THA, $204 (TKA, and $243 (abdominal surgery. Total costs, including

  12. Cost and Cost-Effectiveness of Donor Human Milk to Prevent Necrotizing Enterocolitis: Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckle, Abigail; Taylor, Celia

    2017-11-01

    Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a costly gastrointestinal disorder that mainly affects preterm and low-birth-weight infants and can lead to considerable morbidity and mortality. Mother's own milk is protective against NEC but is not always available. In such cases, donor human milk has also been shown to be protective (although to a lesser extent) compared with formula milk, but it is more expensive. This systematic review aimed at evaluating the cost of donor milk, the cost of treating NEC, and the cost-effectiveness of exclusive donor milk versus formula milk feeding to reduce the short-term health and treatment costs of NEC. We systematically searched five relevant databases to find studies with verifiable costs or charges of donor milk and/or treatment of NEC and any economic evaluations comparing exclusive donor milk with exclusive formula milk feeding. All search results were double screened. Seven studies with verifiable donor milk costs and 17 with verifiable NEC treatment costs were included. The types of cost or charge included varied considerably across studies, so quantitative synthesis was not attempted. Estimates of the incremental length of stay associated with NEC were ∼18 days for medical NEC and 50 days for surgical NEC. Two studies claimed to report economic evaluations but did not do so in practice. It is likely that donor milk provides short-term cost savings by reducing the incidence of NEC. Future studies should provide more details on cost components included and a full economic evaluation, including long-term outcomes, should be undertaken.

  13. Low-Cost Generic Program Use by Medicare Beneficiaries: Implications for Medication Exposure Misclassification in Administrative Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pauly, Nathan J; Talbert, Jeffery C; Brown, Joshua

    2016-06-01

    Administrative claims data are used for a wide variety of research and quality assurance purposes; however, they are prone to medication exposure misclassification if medications are purchased without using an insurance benefit. Low-cost generic drug programs (LCGPs) offered at major chain pharmacies are a relatively new and sparsely investigated source of exposure misclassification. LCGP medications are often purchased out of pocket; thus, a pharmacy claim may never be submitted, and the exposure may go unobserved in claims data. As heavy users of medications, Medicare beneficiaries have much to gain from the affordable medications offered through LCGPs. This use may put them at increased risk of exposure misclassification in claims data. Many high-risk medications (HRMs) and medications tracked for adherence and utilization quality metrics are available through LCGPs, and exposure misclassification of these medications may impact the quality assurance efforts reliant on administrative claims data. Presently, there is little information regarding the use of these programs among a geriatric population. To (a) quantify the prevalence of LCGP users in a nationally representative population of Medicare beneficiaries; (b) compare clinical and demographic characteristics of LCGP users and nonusers; (c) assess determinants of LCGP use and medications acquired through these programs; and (d) analyze patterns of LCGP use during the years 2007-2012. This study relied on data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2007 to 2012. The first 3 objectives were completed with a cohort of individuals in the most recent MEPS panel, while the fourth objective was completed with a separate cohort composed of individuals who participated in MEPS from 2007 to 2012. Inclusion in either study cohort required that individuals were Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or greater, used at least 1 prescription drug during their 2-year panel period, and participated in all 5

  14. Covariates of depression and high utilizers of healthcare: Impact on resource use and costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Rebecca L; Grabner, Michael; Palli, Swetha Rao; Faries, Douglas; Stephenson, Judith J

    2016-06-01

    To characterize healthcare costs, resource use, and treatment patterns of survey respondents with a history of depression who are high utilizers (HUds) of healthcare and to identify factors associated with high utilization. Adults with two or more depression diagnoses identified from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database were invited to participate in the CODE study, which links survey data with 12-month retrospective claims data. Patient surveys provided data on demographics, general health, and symptoms and/or comorbidities associated with depression. Similar clinical conditions also were identified from the medical claims. Factors associated with high utilization were identified using logistic regression models. Of 3132 survey respondents, 1921 were included, 193 of whom were HUds (defined as those who incurred the top 10% of total all-cause costs in the preceding 12months). Mean total annual healthcare costs were eightfold greater for HUds than for non-HUds ($US56,145 vs. $US6,954; pcosts/resource use. HUds were prescribed twice as many medications (total mean: 16.86 vs. 8.32; psychotropic mean: 4.11 vs. 2.61; both pcosts in patients with depression. Copyright © 2016 Eli Lilly and Company. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. A Systematic Method to Analyze Force Majeure in Construction Claims

    OpenAIRE

    Saud Alshammari; Khalid Al-Gahtani; Ibrahim Alhammad; Nuhu Braimah

    2017-01-01

    In construction delay claims, force majeure is normally recognized as an excusable risk that entitles contractors only to time extensions, but neither of the contracting parties is entitled to monetary compensation to recover delay damages. However, there are instances where contractors are entitled to both time and cost compensations, as evidenced by some court cases relating to force majeure claims. Such instances involve attributing the occurrence of the force majeure to the effect of othe...

  16. Outcomes, utilization, and costs among thalassemia and sickle cell disease patients receiving deferoxamine therapy in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delea, Thomas E; Hagiwara, May; Thomas, Simu K; Baladi, Jean-Francois; Phatak, Pradyumna D; Coates, Thomas D

    2008-04-01

    Deferoxamine mesylate (DFO) reduces morbidity and mortality associated with transfusional iron overload. Data on the utilization and costs of care among U.S. patients receiving DFO in typical clinical practice are limited however. This was a retrospective study using a large U.S. health insurance claims database spanning 1/97-12/04 and representing 40 million members in >70 health plans. Study subjects (n = 145 total, 106 sickle cell disease [SCD], 39 thalassemia) included members with a diagnosis of thalassemia or SCD, one or more transfusions (whole blood or red blood cells), and one or more claims for DFO. Mean transfusion episodes were 12 per year. Estimated mean DFO use was 307 g/year. Central venous access devices were required by 20% of patients. Cardiac disease was observed in 16% of patients. Mean total medical costs were $59,233 per year including $10,899 for DFO and $8,722 for administration of chelation therapy. In multivariate analyses, potential complications of iron overload were associated with significantly higher medical care costs. In typical clinical practice, use of DFO in patients with thalassemia and SCD receiving transfusions is low. Administration costs represent a large proportion of the cost of chelation therapy. Potential complications of iron overload are associated with increased costs. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  17. Sensitivity of Billing Claims for Cardiovascular Disease Events among Kidney Transplant Recipients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lentine, Krista L.; Schnitzler, Mark A.; Abbott, Kevin C.; Bramesfeld, Kosha; Buchanan, Paula M.; Brennan, Daniel C.

    2009-01-01

    Background and objectives: Billing claims are increasingly examined beyond administrative functions as outcomes measures in observational research. Few studies have described the performance of billing claims as surrogate measures of clinical events among kidney transplant recipients. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: We investigated the sensitivity of Medicare billing claims for clinically verified cardiovascular diagnoses (five categories) and procedures (four categories) in a novel database linking Medicare claims to electronic medical records of one transplant program. Cardiovascular events identified in medical records for 571 Medicare-insured transplant recipients in 1991 through 2002 served as reference measures. Results: Within a claims-ascertainment period spanning ±30 d of clinically recorded dates, aggregate sensitivity of single claims was higher for case definitions incorporating Medicare Parts A and B for diagnoses and procedures (90.9%) compared with either Part A (82.3%) or Part B (84.6%) alone. Perfect capture of the four procedures was possible within ±30 d or with short claims window expansion, but sensitivity for the diagnoses trended lower with all study algorithms (91.2% with window up to ±90 d). Requirement for additional confirmatory diagnosis claims did not appreciably reduce sensitivity. Sensitivity patterns were similar in the early compared with late periods of the study. Conclusions: Combined use of Medicare Parts A and B billing claims composes a sensitive measure of cardiovascular events after kidney transplant. Further research is needed to define algorithms that maximize specificity as well as sensitivity of claims from Medicare and other insurers as research measures in this population. PMID:19541817

  18. Hyaluronic Acid Injections Are Associated with Delay of Total Knee Replacement Surgery in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: Evidence from a Large U.S. Health Claims Database.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roy Altman

    Full Text Available The growing prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA and the medical costs associated with total knee replacement (TKR surgery for end-stage OA motivate a search for agents that can delay OA progression. We test a hypothesis that hyaluronic acid (HA injection is associated with delay of TKR in a dose-dependent manner.We retrospectively evaluated records in an administrative claims database of ~79 million patients, to identify all patients with knee OA who received TKR during a 6-year period. Only patients with continuous plan enrollment from diagnosis until TKR were included, so that complete medical records were available. OA diagnosis was the index event and we evaluated time-to-TKR as a function of the number of HA injections. The database included 182,022 patients with knee OA who had TKR; 50,349 (27.7% of these patients were classified as HA Users, receiving ≥1 courses of HA prior to TKR, while 131,673 patients (72.3% were HA Non-users prior to TKR, receiving no HA. Cox proportional hazards modelling shows that TKR risk decreases as a function of the number of HA injection courses, if patient age, gender, and disease comorbidity are used as background covariates. Multiple HA injections are therefore associated with delay of TKR (all, P < 0.0001. Half of HA Non-users had a TKR by 114 days post-diagnosis of knee OA, whereas half of HA Users had a TKR by 484 days post-diagnosis (χ2 = 19,769; p < 0.0001. Patients who received no HA had a mean time-to-TKR of 0.7 years; with one course of HA, the mean time to TKR was 1.4 years (χ2 = 13,725; p < 0.0001; patients who received ≥5 courses delayed TKR by 3.6 years (χ2 = 19,935; p < 0.0001.HA injection in patients with knee OA is associated with a dose-dependent increase in time-to-TKR.

  19. Economic burden of comorbidities in psoriasis patients in the United States: results from a retrospective U.S. database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feldman, Steven R; Tian, Haijun; Gilloteau, Isabelle; Mollon, Patrick; Shu, Meng

    2017-05-08

    Psoriasis is a multifactorial, inflammatory, skin disease associated with various comorbidities. The cost of those comorbidities is not well characterized. The present study assesses the incremental burden of comorbidities on healthcare resource utilization, direct costs and indirect costs associated with short-term disabilities among patients with psoriasis in the United States. A retrospective, U.S. cohort analysis was conducted using a large claims database. Adult psoriasis patients with at least two diagnoses of psoriasis during the years 2010 and 2011 (one psoriasis diagnosis had to happen in the year 2010) and with continuous enrollment of medical and pharmacy benefits in the years 2010 and 2011 were included. Psoriasis patients were categorized and compared according to the presence or absence of pre-selected comorbidities in the year 2010. Adjusted annual direct (costs associated with outpatient, emergency room, and inpatient claims, and outpatient pharmacy claims) and indirect costs (short-term disabilities) was assessed in patients with and without comorbidities using a regression analysis, controlling for age, gender, and psoriasis severity in year 2010. In total, 56,406 patients (mean [SD]) age, 51.6 [14.6] years) were included in the analysis. The most prevalent comorbidities were hypertension (34.3%), hyperlipidemia (33.5%), cardiovascular disease (17.7%), diabetes (14.2%), and psoriatic arthritis (9.9%). Psoriasis patients with comorbidities used more healthcare resources than those without comorbidities. The incidence rate ratio (IRR) (95% CI) for patients with cardiovascular disease was 1.5 (1.4 - 1.5) for outpatient visits, 2.6 (2.4 - 2.8) for hospitalizations, and 2.3 (2.2 - 2.5) for ER visits, showing higher IRRs across all three types of resource use. The mean annual adjusted direct cost differences (i.e., incremental adjusted costs) in psoriasis patients with and without comorbidities were $9914.3, $8386.5, and $8275.1 for

  20. Defining hip fracture with claims data: outpatient and provider claims matter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berry, S D; Zullo, A R; McConeghy, K; Lee, Y; Daiello, L; Kiel, D P

    2017-07-01

    Medicare claims are commonly used to identify hip fractures, but there is no universally accepted definition. We found that a definition using inpatient claims identified fewer fractures than a definition including outpatient and provider claims. Few additional fractures were identified by including inconsistent diagnostic and procedural codes at contiguous sites. Medicare claims data is commonly used in research studies to identify hip fractures, but there is no universally accepted definition of fracture. Our purpose was to describe potential misclassification when hip fractures are defined using Medicare Part A (inpatient) claims without considering Part B (outpatient and provider) claims and when inconsistent diagnostic and procedural codes occur at contiguous fracture sites (e.g., femoral shaft or pelvic). Participants included all long-stay nursing home residents enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B fee-for-service between 1/1/2008 and 12/31/2009 with follow-up through 12/31/2011. We compared the number of hip fractures identified using only Part A claims to (1) Part A plus Part B claims and (2) Part A and Part B claims plus discordant codes at contiguous fracture sites. Among 1,257,279 long-stay residents, 40,932 (3.2%) met the definition of hip fracture using Part A claims, and 41,687 residents (3.3%) met the definition using Part B claims. 4566 hip fractures identified using Part B claims would not have been captured using Part A claims. An additional 227 hip fractures were identified after considering contiguous fracture sites. When ascertaining hip fractures, a definition using outpatient and provider claims identified 11% more fractures than a definition with only inpatient claims. Future studies should publish their definition of fracture and specify if diagnostic codes from contiguous fracture sites were used.

  1. Practice databases and their uses in clinical research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tierney, W M; McDonald, C J

    1991-04-01

    A few large clinical information databases have been established within larger medical information systems. Although they are smaller than claims databases, these clinical databases offer several advantages: accurate and timely data, rich clinical detail, and continuous parameters (for example, vital signs and laboratory results). However, the nature of the data vary considerably, which affects the kinds of secondary analyses that can be performed. These databases have been used to investigate clinical epidemiology, risk assessment, post-marketing surveillance of drugs, practice variation, resource use, quality assurance, and decision analysis. In addition, practice databases can be used to identify subjects for prospective studies. Further methodologic developments are necessary to deal with the prevalent problems of missing data and various forms of bias if such databases are to grow and contribute valuable clinical information.

  2. Data linkage of inpatient hospitalization and workers' claims data sets to characterize occupational falls.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunn, Terry L; Slavova, Svetla; Bathke, Arne

    2007-07-01

    The identification of industry, occupation, and associated injury costs for worker falls in Kentucky have not been fully examined. The purpose of this study was to determine the associations between industry and occupation and 1) hospitalization length of stay; 2) hospitalization charges; and 3) workers' claims costs in workers suffering falls, using linked inpatient hospitalization discharge and workers' claims data sets. Hospitalization cases were selected with ICD-9-CM external cause of injury codes for falls and payer code of workers' claims for years 2000-2004. Selection criteria for workers'claims cases were International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions Electronic Data Interchange Nature (IAIABCEDIN) injuries coded as falls and/or slips. Common data variables between the two data sets such as date of birth, gender, date of injury, and hospital admission date were used to perform probabilistic data linkage using LinkSolv software. Statistical analysis was performed with non-parametric tests. Construction falls were the most prevalent for male workers and incurred the highest hospitalization and workers' compensation costs, whereas most female worker falls occurred in the services industry. The largest percentage of male worker falls was from one level to another, while the largest percentage of females experienced a fall, slip, or trip (not otherwise classified). When male construction worker falls were further analyzed, laborers and helpers had longer hospital stays as well as higher total charges when the worker fell from one level to another. Data linkage of hospitalization and workers' claims falls data provides additional information on industry, occupation, and costs that are not available when examining either data set alone.

  3. Impact of the National Practitioner Data Bank on resolution of malpractice claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waters, Teresa M; Studdert, David M; Brennan, Troyen A; Thomas, Eric J; Almagor, Orit; Mancewicz, Martha; Budetti, Peter P

    2003-01-01

    Policymakers and commentators are concerned that the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) has influenced malpractice litigation dynamics. This study examines whether the introduction of the NPDB changed the outcomes, process, and equity of malpractice litigation. Using pre- and post-NPDB analyses, we examine rates of unpaid claims, trials, resolution time, physician defense costs, and payments on claims with a low/high probability of negligence. We find that physicians and their insurers have been less likely to settle claims since introduction of the NPDB, especially for payments less than dollars 50,000. Because this disruption appears to have decreased the proportion of questionable claims receiving compensation, the NPDB actually may have increased overall tort system specificity.

  4. Clinical outcomes in low risk coronary artery disease patients treated with different limus-based drug-eluting stents--a nationwide retrospective cohort study using insurance claims database.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chao-Lun Lai

    Full Text Available The clinical outcomes of different limus-based drug-eluting stents (DES in a real-world setting have not been well defined. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical outcomes of three different limus-based DES, namely sirolimus-eluting stent (SES, Endeavor zotarolimus-eluting stent (E-ZES and everolimus-eluting stent (EES, using a national insurance claims database. We identified all patients who received implantation of single SES, E-ZES or EES between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2009 from the National Health Insurance claims database, Taiwan. Follow-up was through December 31, 2011 for all selected clinical outcomes. The primary end-point was all-cause mortality. Secondary end-points included acute coronary events, heart failure needing hospitalization, and cerebrovascular disease. Cox regression model adjusting for baseline characteristics was used to compare the relative risks of different outcomes among the three different limus-based DES. Totally, 6584 patients were evaluated (n=2142 for SES, n=3445 for E-ZES, and n=997 for EES. After adjusting for baseline characteristics, we found no statistically significant difference in the risk of all-cause mortality in three DES groups (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.14, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.94-1.38, p=0.20 in E-ZES group compared with SES group; adjusted HR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.54-1.10, p=0.15 in EES group compared with SES group. Similarly, we found no difference in the three stent groups in risks of acute coronary events, heart failure needing hospitalization, and cerebrovascular disease. In conclusion, we observed no difference in all-cause mortality, acute coronary events, heart failure needing hospitalization, and cerebrovascular disease in patients treated with SES, E-ZES, and EES in a real-world population-based setting in Taiwan.

  5. 20 CFR 627.435 - Cost principles and allowable costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... system, including the costs of hearings and appeals, and related expenses such as lawyers' fees. Legal...) Legal expenses for the prosecution of claims against the Federal Government, including appeals to an... incurred by the SJTCC, HRIC, PIC's, and other advisory councils or committees; (3) Advertising costs; (4...

  6. Cost and consequences of noncompliance with osteoporosis treatment among women initiating therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Modi, Ankita; Siris, Ethel S; Tang, Jackson; Sen, Shuvayu

    2015-04-01

    The objective was to evaluate compliance with osteoporosis (OP) treatments and determine the fracture and healthcare burden associated with noncompliance. This retrospective analysis of a US claims database identified women initiating an OP medication from 1 January 2002 to 30 June 2009. Patients were ≥55 years and had ≥1 pharmacy claim for a bisphosphonate or non-bisphosphonate (raloxifene, calcitonin, teriparatide); the index date was the first pharmacy claim. There were three study periods: baseline (12 months pre-index); compliance period (0-12 months post-index); and follow-up period (12-24 months post-index). Medication possession ratio (MPR) was calculated during the compliance period to differentiate two cohorts: compliant (MPR ≥ 80%) and noncompliant (MPR costs), all adjusted for patient demographic and clinical characteristics. Overall, 685,505 women initiating OP therapy were identified and 57,913 (8.4%) met the inclusion criteria: only 23,430 (40.5%) were compliant and 34,483 (59.5%) were noncompliant. Mean age was 64 years. Noncompliance was associated with a 20% higher risk of any fracture (odds ratio: 1.20, 95% CI = 1.07-1.35), a higher incidence rate ratio (IRR) for inpatient utilization (IRR: 1.26, 95% CI = 1.19-1.34) and a lower rate of outpatient utilization (IRR: 0.97, 95% CI = 0.95-0.98). Noncompliant patients had 13% higher medical costs (cost ratio: 1.13, 95% CI = 1.06-1.21) than compliant patients. Inclusion in this study required 36 months of continuous healthcare coverage. Thus, the results are primarily applicable to a stable, managed care population and may not be generalizable to other populations. Noncompliance with OP therapy was associated with a higher risk of fracture, higher all-cause medical costs and a higher frequency of inpatient service utilization. Additional research is needed to identify barriers to compliance with OP therapy.

  7. Valuation of Non-Life Liabilities from Claims Triangles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathias Lindholm

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides a complete program for the valuation of aggregate non-life insurance liability cash flows based on claims triangle data. The valuation is fully consistent with the principle of valuation by considering the costs associated with a transfer of the liability to a so-called reference undertaking subject to capital requirements throughout the runoff of the liability cash flow. The valuation program includes complete details on parameter estimation, bias correction and conservative estimation of the value of the liability under partial information. The latter is based on a new approach to the estimation of mean squared error of claims reserve prediction.

  8. Algorithms to identify colonic ischemia, complications of constipation and irritable bowel syndrome in medical claims data: development and validation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sands, Bruce E; Duh, Mei-Sheng; Cali, Clorinda; Ajene, Anuli; Bohn, Rhonda L; Miller, David; Cole, J Alexander; Cook, Suzanne F; Walker, Alexander M

    2006-01-01

    A challenge in the use of insurance claims databases for epidemiologic research is accurate identification and verification of medical conditions. This report describes the development and validation of claims-based algorithms to identify colonic ischemia, hospitalized complications of constipation, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). From the research claims databases of a large healthcare company, we selected at random 120 potential cases of IBS and 59 potential cases each of colonic ischemia and hospitalized complications of constipation. We sought the written medical records and were able to abstract 107, 57, and 51 records, respectively. We established a 'true' case status for each subject by applying standard clinical criteria to the available chart data. Comparing the insurance claims histories to the assigned case status, we iteratively developed, tested, and refined claims-based algorithms that would capture the diagnoses obtained from the medical records. We set goals of high specificity for colonic ischemia and hospitalized complications of constipation, and high sensitivity for IBS. The resulting algorithms substantially improved on the accuracy achievable from a naïve acceptance of the diagnostic codes attached to insurance claims. The specificities for colonic ischemia and serious complications of constipation were 87.2 and 92.7%, respectively, and the sensitivity for IBS was 98.9%. U.S. commercial insurance claims data appear to be usable for the study of colonic ischemia, IBS, and serious complications of constipation. (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  9. Integrity in Higher Education Marketing and Misleading Claims in the University Prospectus: What Happened Next…and Is It Enough?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradley, John

    2018-01-01

    In 2013 this journal published the paper 'Integrity in Higher Education Marketing: A typology of misleading data-based claims in the university prospectus.' It argued that UK universities were using data and statistics in a misleading way in their advertising and proposed a nine-part typology to describe such claims. The present paper describes…

  10. Impact of a Novel Cost-Saving Pharmacy Program on Pregabalin Use and Health Care Costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Carolyn; Odell, Kevin; Cappelleri, Joseph C; Bancroft, Tim; Halpern, Rachel; Sadosky, Alesia

    2016-02-01

    Pharmacy cost-saving programs often aim to reduce costs for members and payers by encouraging use of lower-tier or generic medications and lower-cost sales channels. In 2010, a national U.S. health plan began a novel pharmacy program directed at reducing pharmacy expenditures for targeted medications, including pregabalin. The program provided multiple options to avoid higher cost sharing: use mail order pharmacy or switch to a lower-cost alternative medication via mail order or retail. Members who did not choose any option eventually paid the full retail cost of pregabalin. To evaluate the impact of the pharmacy program on pregabalin and alternative medication use, health care costs, and health care utilization. This retrospective analysis of claims data included adult commercial health plan members with a retail claim for pregabalin in the first 13 months of the pharmacy program (identification [ID] period: February 1, 2010-February 28, 2011). Members whose benefit plan included the pharmacy program were assigned to the program cohort; all others were assigned to the nonprogram cohort. The program cohort index date was the first retail pregabalin claim during the ID period and after the program start; the nonprogram cohort index date was the first retail pregabalin claim during the ID period. All members were continuously enrolled for 12 months pre- and post-index and had at least 1 inpatient claim or ≥ 2 ambulatory visit claims for a pregabalin-indicated condition. Cohorts were propensity score matched (PSM) 1:1 with logistic regression on demographic and pre-index characteristics, including mail order and pregabalin use, comorbidity, health care costs, and health care utilization. Pregabalin, gabapentin and other alternative medication use, health care costs, and health care utilization were measured. The program cohort was also divided into 2 groups: members who changed to gabapentin post-index and those who did not. A difference-in-differences (Di

  11. Overall Hospital Cost Estimates in Children with Congenital Heart Disease: Analysis of the 2012 Kid's Inpatient Database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faraoni, David; Nasr, Viviane G; DiNardo, James A

    2016-01-01

    This study sought to determine overall hospital cost in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and to compare cost associated with cardiac surgical procedures, cardiac catheterizations, non-cardiac surgical procedures, and medical admissions. The 2012 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kid's Inpatient Database was used to evaluate hospital cost in neonates and children with CHD undergoing cardiac surgery, cardiac catheterization, non-cardiac surgical procedures, and medical treatments. Multivariable logistic regression was applied to determine independent predictors for increased hospital cost. In 2012, total hospital cost was 28,900 M$, while hospital cost in children with CHD represented 23% of this total and accounted for only 4.4% of hospital discharges. The median cost was $51,302 ($32,088-$100,058) in children who underwent cardiac surgery, $21,920 ($13,068-$51,609) in children who underwent cardiac catheterization, $4134 ($1771-$10,253) in children who underwent non-cardiac surgery, and $23,062 ($5529-$71,887) in children admitted for medical treatments. Independent predictors for increased cost were hospital bed size cost in children with CHD represented 23% of global cost while accounting for only 4.4% of discharges. This study identified factors associated with increased cost of cardiac surgical procedures, cardiac catheterizations, non-cardiac surgical procedures, and medical management in children with CHD.

  12. Stress related workers' compensation claims: recommendations involving records release.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, K J

    1992-08-01

    1. The cost of stress claims is predicted to cripple the workers' compensation system, where stress claims are burgeoning and the average payout is twice that of a typical injury. The major reason to release medical records in a stress claim is to determine the validity of the claim arising from the job. 2. Occupational health nurses are frequently asked by the courts to reveal personal client information and may not be protected by the "nurse-client relationship" or "privileged communication." Politically, very little interest has been shown in restricting disclosure of private information. 3. Both ANA and AAOHN have adopted strong positions about safeguarding privacy. Legally, the ultimate responsibility for wrongful acts committed by the nurse falls on the individual nurse. 4. The most important reason to guard confidential health information is the basic tenet of the nurse-client relationship in which personal matters are held in confidence. To break this trust is to jeopardize the ability to provide optimal client care, which is the essence of nursing.

  13. A MiniReview of the Use of Hospital-based Databases in Observational Inpatient Studies of Drugs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Michael Due; Cars, Thomas; Hallas, Jesper

    2013-01-01

    inpatient databases in Asia, the United States and Europe were found. Most databases were automatically collected from claims data or generated from electronic medical records. The contents of the databases varied as well as the potential for linkage with other data sources such as laboratory and outpatient...

  14. The epidemiology, healthcare and societal burden and costs of asthma in the UK and its member nations: analyses of standalone and linked national databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mukherjee, Mome; Stoddart, Andrew; Gupta, Ramyani P; Nwaru, Bright I; Farr, Angela; Heaven, Martin; Fitzsimmons, Deborah; Bandyopadhyay, Amrita; Aftab, Chantelle; Simpson, Colin R; Lyons, Ronan A; Fischbacher, Colin; Dibben, Christopher; Shields, Michael D; Phillips, Ceri J; Strachan, David P; Davies, Gwyneth A; McKinstry, Brian; Sheikh, Aziz

    2016-08-29

    There are a lack of reliable data on the epidemiology and associated burden and costs of asthma. We sought to provide the first UK-wide estimates of the epidemiology, healthcare utilisation and costs of asthma. We obtained and analysed asthma-relevant data from 27 datasets: these comprised national health surveys for 2010-11, and routine administrative, health and social care datasets for 2011-12; 2011-12 costs were estimated in pounds sterling using economic modelling. The prevalence of asthma depended on the definition and data source used. The UK lifetime prevalence of patient-reported symptoms suggestive of asthma was 29.5 % (95 % CI, 27.7-31.3; n = 18.5 million (m) people) and 15.6 % (14.3-16.9, n = 9.8 m) for patient-reported clinician-diagnosed asthma. The annual prevalence of patient-reported clinician-diagnosed-and-treated asthma was 9.6 % (8.9-10.3, n = 6.0 m) and of clinician-reported, diagnosed-and-treated asthma 5.7 % (5.7-5.7; n = 3.6 m). Asthma resulted in at least 6.3 m primary care consultations, 93,000 hospital in-patient episodes, 1800 intensive-care unit episodes and 36,800 disability living allowance claims. The costs of asthma were estimated at least £1.1 billion: 74 % of these costs were for provision of primary care services (60 % prescribing, 14 % consultations), 13 % for disability claims, and 12 % for hospital care. There were 1160 asthma deaths. Asthma is very common and is responsible for considerable morbidity, healthcare utilisation and financial costs to the UK public sector. Greater policy focus on primary care provision is needed to reduce the risk of asthma exacerbations, hospitalisations and deaths, and reduce costs.

  15. Medical chart validation of an algorithm for identifying multiple sclerosis relapse in healthcare claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chastek, Benjamin J; Oleen-Burkey, Merrikay; Lopez-Bresnahan, Maria V

    2010-01-01

    Relapse is a common measure of disease activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). The objective of this study was to test the content validity of an operational algorithm for detecting relapse in claims data. A claims-based relapse detection algorithm was tested by comparing its detection rate over a 1-year period with relapses identified based on medical chart review. According to the algorithm, MS patients in a US healthcare claims database who had either (1) a primary claim for MS during hospitalization or (2) a corticosteroid claim following a MS-related outpatient visit were designated as having a relapse. Patient charts were examined for explicit indication of relapse or care suggestive of relapse. Positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Medical charts were reviewed for 300 MS patients, half of whom had a relapse according to the algorithm. The claims-based criteria correctly classified 67.3% of patients with relapses (positive predictive value) and 70.0% of patients without relapses (negative predictive value; kappa 0.373: p value of the operational algorithm. Limitations of the algorithm include lack of differentiation between relapsing-remitting MS and other types, and that it does not incorporate measures of function and disability. The claims-based algorithm appeared to successfully detect moderate-to-severe MS relapse. This validated definition can be applied to future claims-based MS studies.

  16. The cost of unintended pregnancies for employer-sponsored health insurance plans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dieguez, Gabriela; Pyenson, Bruce S; Law, Amy W; Lynen, Richard; Trussell, James

    2015-04-01

    Pregnancy is associated with a significant cost for employers providing health insurance benefits to their employees. The latest study on the topic was published in 2002, estimating the unintended pregnancy rate for women covered by employer-sponsored insurance benefits to be approximately 29%. The primary objective of this study was to update the cost of unintended pregnancy to employer-sponsored health insurance plans with current data. The secondary objective was to develop a regression model to identify the factors and associated magnitude that contribute to unintended pregnancies in the employee benefits population. We developed stepwise multinomial logistic regression models using data from a national survey on maternal attitudes about pregnancy before and shortly after giving birth. The survey was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through mail and via telephone interviews between 2009 and 2011 of women who had had a live birth. The regression models were then applied to a large commercial health claims database from the Truven Health MarketScan to retrospectively assign the probability of pregnancy intention to each delivery. Based on the MarketScan database, we estimate that among employer-sponsored health insurance plans, 28.8% of pregnancies are unintended, which is consistent with national findings of 29% in a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These unintended pregnancies account for 27.4% of the annual delivery costs to employers in the United States, or approximately 1% of the typical employer's health benefits spending for 1 year. Using these findings, we present a regression model that employers could apply to their claims data to identify the risk for unintended pregnancies in their health insurance population. The availability of coverage for contraception without employee cost-sharing, as was required by the Affordable Care Act in 2012, combined with the ability to identify women who are at high

  17. Establishing a library of resources to help people understand key concepts in assessing treatment claims-The "Critical thinking and Appraisal Resource Library" (CARL).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castle, John C; Chalmers, Iain; Atkinson, Patricia; Badenoch, Douglas; Oxman, Andrew D; Austvoll-Dahlgren, Astrid; Nordheim, Lena; Krause, L Kendall; Schwartz, Lisa M; Woloshin, Steven; Burls, Amanda; Mosconi, Paola; Hoffmann, Tammy; Cusack, Leila; Albarqouni, Loai; Glasziou, Paul

    2017-01-01

    People are frequently confronted with untrustworthy claims about the effects of treatments. Uncritical acceptance of these claims can lead to poor, and sometimes dangerous, treatment decisions, and wasted time and money. Resources to help people learn to think critically about treatment claims are scarce, and they are widely scattered. Furthermore, very few learning-resources have been assessed to see if they improve knowledge and behavior. Our objectives were to develop the Critical thinking and Appraisal Resource Library (CARL). This library was to be in the form of a database containing learning resources for those who are responsible for encouraging critical thinking about treatment claims, and was to be made available online. We wished to include resources for groups we identified as 'intermediaries' of knowledge, i.e. teachers of schoolchildren, undergraduates and graduates, for example those teaching evidence-based medicine, or those communicating treatment claims to the public. In selecting resources, we wished to draw particular attention to those resources that had been formally evaluated, for example, by the creators of the resource or independent research groups. CARL was populated with learning-resources identified from a variety of sources-two previously developed but unmaintained inventories; systematic reviews of learning-interventions; online and database searches; and recommendations by members of the project group and its advisors. The learning-resources in CARL were organised by 'Key Concepts' needed to judge the trustworthiness of treatment claims, and were made available online by the James Lind Initiative in Testing Treatments interactive (TTi) English (www.testingtreatments.org/category/learning-resources).TTi English also incorporated the database of Key Concepts and the Claim Evaluation Tools developed through the Informed Healthcare Choices (IHC) project (informedhealthchoices.org). We have created a database of resources called CARL

  18. An analysis of the warning letters issued by the FDA to pharmaceutical manufacturers regarding misleading health outcomes claims

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chatterjee S

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To evaluate the number and type of warning letters issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA to pharmaceutical manufacturers for promotional violations.Methods: Two reviewers downloaded, printed and independently evaluated warning letters issued by the FDA to pharmaceutical manufacturers from years 2003-2008. Misleading claims were broadly classified as clinical, Quality-of-Life (QoL, and economic claims. Clinical claims included claims regarding unsubstantiated efficacy, safety and tolerability, superiority, broadening of indication and/or omission of risk information. QoL claims included unsubstantiated quality of life and/or health-related quality of life claims. Economic claims included any form of claim made on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies related to cost superiority of or cost savings from the drug compared to other drugs in the market.Results: In the 6-year study period, 65 warning letters were issued by FDA, which contained 144 clinical, three QoL, and one economic claim. On an average, 11 warning letters were issued per year. Omission of risk information was the most frequently violated claim (30.6% followed by unsubstantiated efficacy claims (18.6%. Warning letters were primarily directed to manufacturers of cardiovascular (14.6%, anti-microbial (14.6%, and CNS (12.5% drugs. Majority of the claims referenced in warning letters contained promotional materials directed to physicians (57%. Conclusion: The study found that misleading clinical outcome claims formed the majority of the promotional violations, and majority of the claims were directed to physicians. Since inadequate promotion of medications may lead to irrational prescribing, the study emphasizes the importance of disseminating reliable, credible, and scientific information to patients, and more importantly, physicians to protect public health.

  19. A systematic review of validated methods to capture acute bronchospasm using administrative or claims data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharifi, Mona; Krishanswami, Shanthi; McPheeters, Melissa L

    2013-12-30

    To identify and assess billing, procedural, or diagnosis code, or pharmacy claim-based algorithms used to identify acute bronchospasm in administrative and claims databases. We searched the MEDLINE database from 1991 to September 2012 using controlled vocabulary and key terms related to bronchospasm, wheeze and acute asthma. We also searched the reference lists of included studies. Two investigators independently assessed the full text of studies against pre-determined inclusion criteria. Two reviewers independently extracted data regarding participant and algorithm characteristics. Our searches identified 677 citations of which 38 met our inclusion criteria. In these 38 studies, the most commonly used ICD-9 code was 493.x. Only 3 studies reported any validation methods for the identification of bronchospasm, wheeze or acute asthma in administrative and claims databases; all were among pediatric populations and only 2 offered any validation statistics. Some of the outcome definitions utilized were heterogeneous and included other disease based diagnoses, such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia, which are typically of an infectious etiology. One study offered the validation of algorithms utilizing Emergency Department triage chief complaint codes to diagnose acute asthma exacerbations with ICD-9 786.07 (wheezing) revealing the highest sensitivity (56%), specificity (97%), PPV (93.5%) and NPV (76%). There is a paucity of studies reporting rigorous methods to validate algorithms for the identification of bronchospasm in administrative data. The scant validated data available are limited in their generalizability to broad-based populations. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Cost Analysis of MRI Services in Iran: An Application of Activity Based Costing Technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bayati, Mohsen; Mahboub Ahari, Alireza; Badakhshan, Abbas; Gholipour, Mahin; Joulaei, Hassan

    2015-01-01

    Considerable development of MRI technology in diagnostic imaging, high cost of MRI technology and controversial issues concerning official charges (tariffs) have been the main motivations to define and implement this study. The present study aimed to calculate the unit-cost of MRI services using activity-based costing (ABC) as a modern cost accounting system and to fairly compare calculated unit-costs with official charges (tariffs). We included both direct and indirect costs of MRI services delivered in fiscal year 2011 in Shiraz Shahid Faghihi hospital. Direct allocation method was used for distribution of overhead costs. We used micro-costing approach to calculate unit-cost of all different MRI services. Clinical cost data were retrieved from the hospital registering system. Straight-line method was used for depreciation cost estimation. To cope with uncertainty and to increase the robustness of study results, unit costs of 33 MRI services was calculated in terms of two scenarios. Total annual cost of MRI activity center (AC) was calculated at USD 400,746 and USD 532,104 based on first and second scenarios, respectively. Ten percent of the total cost was allocated from supportive departments. The annual variable costs of MRI center were calculated at USD 295,904. Capital costs measured at USD 104,842 and USD 236, 200 resulted from the first and second scenario, respectively. Existing tariffs for more than half of MRI services were above the calculated costs. As a public hospital, there are considerable limitations in both financial and administrative databases of Shahid Faghihi hospital. Labor cost has the greatest share of total annual cost of Shahid Faghihi hospital. The gap between unit costs and tariffs implies that the claim for extra budget from health providers may not be relevant for all services delivered by the studied MRI center. With some adjustments, ABC could be implemented in MRI centers. With the settlement of a reliable cost accounting system

  1. Cost Analysis of MRI Services in Iran: An Application of Activity Based Costing Technique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayati, Mohsen; Mahboub Ahari, Alireza; Badakhshan, Abbas; Gholipour, Mahin; Joulaei, Hassan

    2015-10-01

    Considerable development of MRI technology in diagnostic imaging, high cost of MRI technology and controversial issues concerning official charges (tariffs) have been the main motivations to define and implement this study. The present study aimed to calculate the unit-cost of MRI services using activity-based costing (ABC) as a modern cost accounting system and to fairly compare calculated unit-costs with official charges (tariffs). We included both direct and indirect costs of MRI services delivered in fiscal year 2011 in Shiraz Shahid Faghihi hospital. Direct allocation method was used for distribution of overhead costs. We used micro-costing approach to calculate unit-cost of all different MRI services. Clinical cost data were retrieved from the hospital registering system. Straight-line method was used for depreciation cost estimation. To cope with uncertainty and to increase the robustness of study results, unit costs of 33 MRI services was calculated in terms of two scenarios. Total annual cost of MRI activity center (AC) was calculated at USD 400,746 and USD 532,104 based on first and second scenarios, respectively. Ten percent of the total cost was allocated from supportive departments. The annual variable costs of MRI center were calculated at USD 295,904. Capital costs measured at USD 104,842 and USD 236, 200 resulted from the first and second scenario, respectively. Existing tariffs for more than half of MRI services were above the calculated costs. As a public hospital, there are considerable limitations in both financial and administrative databases of Shahid Faghihi hospital. Labor cost has the greatest share of total annual cost of Shahid Faghihi hospital. The gap between unit costs and tariffs implies that the claim for extra budget from health providers may not be relevant for all services delivered by the studied MRI center. With some adjustments, ABC could be implemented in MRI centers. With the settlement of a reliable cost accounting system

  2. Glycemic control and diabetes-related health care costs in type 2 diabetes; retrospective analysis based on clinical and administrative databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degli Esposti, Luca; Saragoni, Stefania; Buda, Stefano; Sturani, Alessandra; Degli Esposti, Ezio

    2013-01-01

    Diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases, and its prevalence is predicted to increase in the next two decades. Diabetes imposes a staggering financial burden on the health care system, so information about the costs and experiences of collecting and reporting quality measures of data is vital for practices deciding whether to adopt quality improvements or monitor existing initiatives. The aim of this study was to quantify the association between health care costs and level of glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes using clinical and administrative databases. A retrospective analysis using a large administrative database and a clinical registry containing laboratory results was performed. Patients were subdivided according to their glycated hemoglobin level. Multivariate analyses were used to control for differences in potential confounding factors, including age, gender, Charlson comorbidity index, presence of dyslipidemia, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease, and degree of adherence with antidiabetic drugs among the study groups. Of the total population of 700,000 subjects, 31,022 were identified as being diabetic (4.4% of the entire population). Of these, 21,586 met the study inclusion criteria. In total, 31.5% of patients had very poor glycemic control and 25.7% had excellent control. Over 2 years, the mean diabetes-related cost per person was: €1291.56 in patients with excellent control; €1545.99 in those with good control; €1584.07 in those with fair control; €1839.42 in those with poor control; and €1894.80 in those with very poor control. After adjustment, compared with the group having excellent control, the estimated excess cost per person associated with the groups with good control, fair control, poor control, and very poor control was €219.28, €264.65, €513.18, and €564.79, respectively. Many patients showed suboptimal glycemic control. Lower levels of glycated hemoglobin were associated with lower diabetes

  3. Value Creation and Value Claiming in Make-Or-Buy Decisions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    E. Verwaal (Ernst); W.J.M.I. Verbeke (Willem); H.R. Commandeur (Harry)

    2002-01-01

    textabstractTransaction value analysis (TVA) integrates the concepts of resource heterogeneity and transaction cost economics into a single framework, which emphasizes both value creation and value claiming in firms' vertical integration decisions. Using a TVA perspective, we develop hypotheses to

  4. Changes in healthcare utilization and costs associated with sildenafil therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension: a retrospective cohort study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Berger Ariel

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Little is known concerning the degree to which initiation of sildenafil for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH impacts patterns of healthcare utilization and costs. Methods Using a large US health insurance claims database, we identified all patients with evidence of PAH (ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes 416.0, 416.8 who received sildenafil between 1/1/2005 and 9/30/2008. Date of the first-noted prescription for sildenafil was designated the “index date,” and claims data were compiled for all study subjects for 6 months prior to their index date (“pretreatment” and 6 months thereafter (“follow-up”; patients with incomplete data during either of these periods were excluded. Healthcare utilization and costs were then compared between pretreatment and follow-up for all study subjects. Results A total of 567 PAH patients were identified who began therapy with sildenafil and met all other study entry criteria. Mean (SD age was 52 (10 years; 73% were women. Healthcare utilization was largely unchanged between pretreatment and follow-up, the only exceptions being decreases in the mean number of emergency department visits (from 0.7 to 0.5 per patient; p  Conclusions The cost of sildenafil therapy may be partially offset by reductions in other healthcare costs.

  5. Federal databases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Welch, M.J.; Welles, B.W.

    1988-01-01

    Accident statistics on all modes of transportation are available as risk assessment analytical tools through several federal agencies. This paper reports on the examination of the accident databases by personal contact with the federal staff responsible for administration of the database programs. This activity, sponsored by the Department of Energy through Sandia National Laboratories, is an overview of the national accident data on highway, rail, air, and marine shipping. For each mode, the definition or reporting requirements of an accident are determined and the method of entering the accident data into the database is established. Availability of the database to others, ease of access, costs, and who to contact were prime questions to each of the database program managers. Additionally, how the agency uses the accident data was of major interest

  6. Regional Variation of Cost of Care in the Last 12 Months of Life in Switzerland: Small-area Analysis Using Insurance Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panczak, Radoslaw; Luta, Xhyljeta; Maessen, Maud; Stuck, Andreas E; Berlin, Claudia; Schmidlin, Kurt; Reich, Oliver; von Wyl, Viktor; Goodman, David C; Egger, Matthias; Zwahlen, Marcel; Clough-Gorr, Kerri M

    2017-02-01

    Health care spending increases sharply at the end of life. Little is known about variation of cost of end of life care between regions and the drivers of such variation. We studied small-area patterns of cost of care in the last year of life in Switzerland. We used mandatory health insurance claims data of individuals who died between 2008 and 2010 to derive cost of care. We used multilevel regression models to estimate differences in costs across 564 regions of place of residence, nested within 71 hospital service areas. We examined to what extent variation was explained by characteristics of individuals and regions, including measures of health care supply. The study population consisted of 113,277 individuals. The mean cost of care during last year of life was 32.5k (thousand) Swiss Francs per person (SD=33.2k). Cost differed substantially between regions after adjustment for patient age, sex, and cause of death. Variance was reduced by 52%-95% when we added individual and regional characteristics, with a strong effect of language region. Measures of supply of care did not show associations with costs. Remaining between and within hospital service area variations were most pronounced for older females and least for younger individuals. In Switzerland, small-area analysis revealed variation of cost of care during the last year of life according to linguistic regions and unexplained regional differences for older women. Cultural factors contribute to the delivery and utilization of health care during the last months of life and should be considered by policy makers.

  7. Large-scale Health Information Database and Privacy Protection*1

    OpenAIRE

    YAMAMOTO, Ryuichi

    2016-01-01

    Japan was once progressive in the digitalization of healthcare fields but unfortunately has fallen behind in terms of the secondary use of data for public interest. There has recently been a trend to establish large-scale health databases in the nation, and a conflict between data use for public interest and privacy protection has surfaced as this trend has progressed. Databases for health insurance claims or for specific health checkups and guidance services were created according to the law...

  8. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD) is a unique and powerful database designed to support various types of analyses of national readmission rates for all...

  9. [Urological diseases most frequently involved in medical professional liability claims].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vargas-Blasco, César; Gómez-Durán, Esperanza L; Arimany-Manso, Josep; Pera-Bajo, Francisco

    2014-03-01

    Clinical safety and medical professional liability are international major concerns, especially in surgical specialties such as urology. This article analyzes the claims filed at the Council of Medical Colleges of Catalonia between 1990 and 2012, exploring urology procedures. The review of the 173 cases identified in the database highlighted the importance of surgical procedures (74%). Higher frequencies related to scrotal-testicular pathology (34%), especially testicular torsion (7.5%) and vasectomy (19.6%), and prostate pathology (26 %), more specifically the surgical treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (17.9%). Although urology is not among the specialties with the higher frequency of claims, there are special areas of litigation in which it is advisable to implement improvements in clinical safety. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

  10. Nuclear power economic database

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ding Xiaoming; Li Lin; Zhao Shiping

    1996-01-01

    Nuclear power economic database (NPEDB), based on ORACLE V6.0, consists of three parts, i.e., economic data base of nuclear power station, economic data base of nuclear fuel cycle and economic database of nuclear power planning and nuclear environment. Economic database of nuclear power station includes data of general economics, technique, capital cost and benefit, etc. Economic database of nuclear fuel cycle includes data of technique and nuclear fuel price. Economic database of nuclear power planning and nuclear environment includes data of energy history, forecast, energy balance, electric power and energy facilities

  11. Short-term costs of preeclampsia to the United States health care system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, Warren; Shih, Tiffany; Incerti, Devin; Ton, Thanh G N; Lee, Henry C; Peneva, Desi; Macones, George A; Sibai, Baha M; Jena, Anupam B

    2017-09-01

    Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality and adverse neonatal outcomes. Little is known about the extent of the health and cost burden of preeclampsia in the United States. This study sought to quantify the annual epidemiological and health care cost burden of preeclampsia to both mothers and infants in the United States in 2012. We used epidemiological and econometric methods to assess the annual cost of preeclampsia in the United States using a combination of population-based and administrative data sets: the National Center for Health Statistics Vital Statistics on Births, the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative Databases, the US Health Care Cost and Utilization Project database, and a commercial claims data set. Preeclampsia increased the probability of an adverse event from 4.6% to 10.1% for mothers and from 7.8% to 15.4% for infants while lowering gestational age by 1.7 weeks (P preeclampsia during the first 12 months after birth was $1.03 billion for mothers and $1.15 billion for infants. The cost burden per infant is dependent on gestational age, ranging from $150,000 at 26 weeks gestational age to $1311 at 36 weeks gestational age. In 2012, the cost of preeclampsia within the first 12 months of delivery was $2.18 billion in the United States ($1.03 billion for mothers and $1.15 billion for infants), and was disproportionately borne by births of low gestational age. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Estimating anesthesia and surgical procedure times from medicare anesthesia claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silber, Jeffrey H; Rosenbaum, Paul R; Zhang, Xuemei; Even-Shoshan, Orit

    2007-02-01

    Procedure times are important variables that often are included in studies of quality and efficiency. However, due to the need for costly chart review, most studies are limited to single-institution analyses. In this article, the authors describe how well the anesthesia claim from Medicare can estimate chart times. The authors abstracted information on time of induction and entrance to the recovery room ("anesthesia chart time") from the charts of 1,931 patients who underwent general and orthopedic surgical procedures in Pennsylvania. The authors then merged the associated bills from claims data supplied from Medicare (Part B data) that included a variable denoting the time in minutes for the anesthesia service. The authors also investigated the time from incision to closure ("surgical chart time") on a subset of 1,888 patients. Anesthesia claim time from Medicare was highly predictive of anesthesia chart time (Kendall's rank correlation tau = 0.85, P < 0.0001, median absolute error = 5.1 min) but somewhat less predictive of surgical chart time (Kendall's tau = 0.73, P < 0.0001, median absolute error = 13.8 min). When predicting chart time from Medicare bills, variables reflecting procedure type, comorbidities, and hospital type did not significantly improve the prediction, suggesting that errors in predicting the chart time from the anesthesia bill time are not related to these factors; however, the individual hospital did have some influence on these estimates. Anesthesia chart time can be well estimated using Medicare claims, thereby facilitating studies with vastly larger sample sizes and much lower costs of data collection.

  13. A cost comparison of alternative regimens for treatment-refractory partial seizure disorder: an econometric analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Won Chan; Hoffmann, Marc S; Arcona, Steve; D'Souza, Joseph; Wang, Qin; Pashos, Chris L

    2005-10-01

    Partial seizure disorder is typically treated by monotherapy with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). However, when the condition is refractory to the initial treatment regimen, patients may be switched to monotherapy with another AED or to combination therapy with the initial AED plus a second AED. The purpose of this study was to examine the economic costs associated with treatment-refractory partial seizure disorder and to compare the costs of 2 alternative approaches: a switch to oxcarbazepine (OXC) monotherapy or the addition to the regimen of another AED (AED add-on). Adult patients with a diagnosis of partial seizure disorder who received initial AED monotherapy between January 1, 2000, and March 31, 2003, were identified from the PharMetrics Patient-Centric Database, a health plan administrative claims database. The medical and pharmacy history of these patients was analyzed from 6 months before a change to either OXC monotherapy or AED add-on therapy through 12 months after the change in treatment. Total health care resource utilization and the associated costs were compared within each cohort before and after the change, as well as between cohorts, with statistical differences tested using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Multivariate econometric analyses were performed to examine the impact of age, sex, geographic location, Charlson Comorbidity Index, and the presence of specific comorbidities. Demographic and clinical characteristics 102 were similar between the OXC monotherapy cohort (n = 259) and the AED add-on cohort (n = 795). Annual direct treatment costs increased in both groups in the period after the failure of initial monotherapy, increasing from 10,462 US dollars to 11,360 US dollars in the OXC cohort and from 10,137 US dollars to 12,201 US dollars in the AED add on cohort (P < 0.01). Increased pharmacy costs were the primary driver behind cost increases in both cohorts. Patients in the AED add-on cohort were significantly more likely to have an emergency

  14. BenefitClaimWebServiceBean/BenefitClaimWebService

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Veterans Affairs — A formal or informal request for a type of monetary or non-monetary benefit. This service provides benefit claims and benefit claim special issues data, allows the...

  15. Cost of work-related injuries in insured workplaces in Lebanon.

    OpenAIRE

    Fayad, Rim; Nuwayhid, Iman; Tamim, Hala; Kassak, Kassem; Khogali, Mustafa

    2003-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To estimate the medical and compensation costs of work-related injuries in insured workplaces in Lebanon and to examine cost distributions by worker and injury characteristics. METHODS: A total of 3748 claims for work injuries processed in 1998 by five major insurance companies in Lebanon were reviewed. Medical costs (related to emergency room fees, physician consultations, tests, and medications) and wage and indemnity compensation costs were identified from the claims. FINDINGS: ...

  16. Standardizing terminology and definitions of medication adherence and persistence in research employing electronic databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raebel, Marsha A; Schmittdiel, Julie; Karter, Andrew J; Konieczny, Jennifer L; Steiner, John F

    2013-08-01

    To propose a unifying set of definitions for prescription adherence research utilizing electronic health record prescribing databases, prescription dispensing databases, and pharmacy claims databases and to provide a conceptual framework to operationalize these definitions consistently across studies. We reviewed recent literature to identify definitions in electronic database studies of prescription-filling patterns for chronic oral medications. We then develop a conceptual model and propose standardized terminology and definitions to describe prescription-filling behavior from electronic databases. The conceptual model we propose defines 2 separate constructs: medication adherence and persistence. We define primary and secondary adherence as distinct subtypes of adherence. Metrics for estimating secondary adherence are discussed and critiqued, including a newer metric (New Prescription Medication Gap measure) that enables estimation of both primary and secondary adherence. Terminology currently used in prescription adherence research employing electronic databases lacks consistency. We propose a clear, consistent, broadly applicable conceptual model and terminology for such studies. The model and definitions facilitate research utilizing electronic medication prescribing, dispensing, and/or claims databases and encompasses the entire continuum of prescription-filling behavior. Employing conceptually clear and consistent terminology to define medication adherence and persistence will facilitate future comparative effectiveness research and meta-analytic studies that utilize electronic prescription and dispensing records.

  17. Considerations for the analysis of longitudinal electronic health records linked to claims data to study the effectiveness and safety of drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, K J; Schneeweiss, S

    2016-08-01

    Health insurance claims and electronic health records (EHR) databases have been considered the preferred data sources with which to study drug safety and effectiveness in routine care. Linking claims data to EHR allows researchers to leverage the complementary advantages of each data source to enhance study validity. We propose a framework to evaluate the need for supplementing claims data with EHR and vice versa to optimize outcome ascertainment, exposure assessment, and confounding adjustment. © 2016 American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

  18. Reducing patient drug acquisition costs can lower diabetes health claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahoney, John J

    2005-08-01

    Concerned about rising prevalence and costs of diabetes among its employees, Pitney Bowes Inc recently revamped its drug benefit design to synergize with ongoing efforts in its disease management and patient education programs. Specifically, based on a predictive model showing that low medication adherence was linked to subsequent increases in healthcare costs in patients with diabetes, the company shifted all diabetes drugs and devices from tier 2 or 3 formulary status to tier 1. The rationale was that reducing patient out-of-pocket costs would eliminate financial barriers to preventive care, and thereby increase adherence, reduce costly complications, and slow the overall rate of rising healthcare costs. This single change in pharmaceutical benefit design immediately made critical brand-name drugs available to most Pitney Bowes employees and their covered dependents for 10% coinsurance, the same coinsurance level as for generic drugs, versus the previous cost share of 25% to 50%. After 2 to 3 years, preliminary results in plan participants with diabetes indicate that medication possession rates have increased significantly, use of fixed-combination drugs has increased (possibly related to easier adherence), average total pharmacy costs have decreased by 7%, and emergency department visits have decreased by 26%. Hospital admission rates, although increasing slightly, remain below the demographically adjusted Medstat benchmark. Overall direct healthcare costs per plan participant with diabetes decreased by 6%. In addition, the rate of increase in overall per-plan-participant health costs at Pitney Bowes has slowed markedly, with net per-plan-participant costs in 2003 at about 4000 dollars per year versus 6500 dollars for the industry benchmark. This recent moderation in overall corporate health costs may be related to these strategic changes in drug benefit design for diabetes, asthma, and hypertension and also to ongoing enhancements in the company's disease

  19. Risk of Peripheral Artery Occlusive Disease in Patients with Vertigo, Tinnitus, or Sudden Deafness: A Secondary Case-Control Analysis of a Nationwide, Population-Based Health Claims Database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, Malcolm; Chen, Jin-Cherng; Hwang, Juen-Haur

    2016-01-01

    Cochleovestibular symptoms, such as vertigo, tinnitus, and sudden deafness, are common manifestations of microvascular diseases. However, it is unclear whether these symptoms occurred preceding the diagnosis of peripheral artery occlusive disease (PAOD). Therefore, the aim of this case-control study was to investigate the risk of PAOD among patients with vertigo, tinnitus, and sudden deafness using a nationwide, population-based health claim database in Taiwan. We identified 5,340 adult patients with PAOD diagnosed between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010 and 16,020 controls, frequency matched on age interval, sex, and year of index date, from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Risks of PAOD in patients with vertigo, tinnitus, or sudden deafness were separately evaluated with multivariate logistic regression analyses. Of the 5,340 patients with PAOD, 12.7%, 6.7%, and 0.3% were diagnosed with vertigo, tinnitus, and sudden deafness, respectively. In the controls, 10.6%, 6.1%, and 0.3% were diagnosed with vertigo (P vertigo (adjusted odds ratio = 1.12, P = 0.027) but not in those with tinnitus or sudden deafness. A modest increase in the risk of PAOD was observed among Taiwanese patients with vertigo, after adjustment for comorbidities.

  20. A logistic regression model for Ghana National Health Insurance claims

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel Antwi

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available In August 2003, the Ghanaian Government made history by implementing the first National Health Insurance System (NHIS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Within three years, over half of the country’s population had voluntarily enrolled into the National Health Insurance Scheme. This study had three objectives: 1 To estimate the risk factors that influences the Ghana national health insurance claims. 2 To estimate the magnitude of each of the risk factors in relation to the Ghana national health insurance claims. In this work, data was collected from the policyholders of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme with the help of the National Health Insurance database and the patients’ attendance register of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, from 1st January to 31st December 2011. Quantitative analysis was done using the generalized linear regression (GLR models. The results indicate that risk factors such as sex, age, marital status, distance and length of stay at the hospital were important predictors of health insurance claims. However, it was found that the risk factors; health status, billed charges and income level are not good predictors of national health insurance claim. The outcome of the study shows that sex, age, marital status, distance and length of stay at the hospital are statistically significant in the determination of the Ghana National health insurance premiums since they considerably influence claims. We recommended, among other things that, the National Health Insurance Authority should facilitate the institutionalization of the collection of appropriate data on a continuous basis to help in the determination of future premiums.

  1. 28 CFR 43.1 - Administrative determination and assertion of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Administrative determination and assertion of claims. 43.1 Section 43.1 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) RECOVERY OF COST OF HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CARE AND TREATMENT FURNISHED BY THE UNITED STATES § 43.1 Administrative...

  2. Persistence with weekly and monthly bisphosphonates among postmenopausal women: analysis of a US pharmacy claims administrative database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fan T

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Tao Fan, Qiaoyi Zhang, Shuvayu S Sen Global Health Outcomes, Merck, Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA Background: Bisphosphonates are available in daily, weekly, and monthly dosing formulations to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis. Some researchers suggested that adherence to monthly bisphosphonate might be different from that with weekly or daily bisphosphonate because of different dosing regimens. However, the actual persistency rates in regular practice settings are unknown. Objectives: To compare persistence rates with alendronate 70 mg once weekly (AOW, risedronate 35 mg once weekly (ROW, and ibandronate 150 mg once monthly (IOM in a US pharmacy claims database. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, pharmacy claims data of patients with new bisphosphonate prescriptions were extracted for women aged ≥ 50 years who had an AOW, ROW, or IOM prescription (index prescription between December 30, 2004 and May 31, 2005 (the index period and did not have the index Rx during the previous 12 months. Patients’ records were reviewed for at least 5 months from their index date to November 2, 2005 (the follow-up period. Patients were considered persistent if they neither discontinued (failed to refill the index Rx within a 45-day period following the last supply day of the previous dispensing nor switched (changed to another bisphosphonate during the follow-up period. Medication-possession ratio was defined as days with index prescription supplies/total days of follow-up. Results: Among 44,635 patients, 25,207 (56.5% received prescriptions of AOW, 18,689 (41.9% ROW, and 739 (1.7% IOM as the index prescription. In all, 35.1% of AOW patients, 32.5% of ROW patients, and 30.4% of IOM patients (P < 0.0001 AOW vs ROW or IOM had persisted with their initial therapy, whereas 64.0% of AOW, 66.4% of ROW, and 68.2% of IOM patients discontinued (P < 0.0001 during follow-up. The medication-possession ratio (days with index prescription supplies/total days of

  3. Sports-related injuries in New Zealand: National Insurance (Accident Compensation Corporation) claims for five sporting codes from 2012 to 2016.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Doug; Hume, Patria A; Hardaker, Natalie; Cummins, Cloe; Gissane, Conor; Clark, Trevor

    2018-03-12

    To provide epidemiological data and related costs for sport-related injuries of five sporting codes (cricket, netball, rugby league, rugby union and football) in New Zealand for moderate-to-serious and serious injury claims. A retrospective analytical review using detailed descriptive epidemiological data obtained from the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) for 2012-2016. Over the 5 years of study data, rugby union recorded the most moderate-to-serious injury entitlement claims (25 226) and costs (New Zealand dollars (NZD$)267 359 440 (£139 084 749)) resulting in the highest mean cost (NZD$10 484 (£5454)) per moderate-to-serious injury entitlement claim. Rugby union recorded more serious injury entitlement claims (n=454) than cricket (t (4) =-66.6; P<0.0001); netball (t (4) =-45.1; P<0.0001); rugby league (t (4) =-61.4; P<0.0001) and football (t (4) =66.6; P<0.0001) for 2012-2016. There was a twofold increase in the number of female moderate-to-serious injury entitlement claims for football (RR 2.6 (95%CI 2.2 to 2.9); P<0.0001) compared with cricket, and a threefold increase when compared with rugby union (risk ratio (RR) 3.1 (95%CI 2.9 to 3.3); P<0.0001). Moderate-to-serious concussion claims increased between 2012 and 2016 for netball (RR 3.7 (95%CI 1.9 to 7.1); P<0.0001), rugby union (RR 2.0 (95% CI 1.6 to 2.4); P<0.0001) and football (RR 2.3 (95%CI 1.6 to 3.2); P<0.0001). Nearly a quarter of moderate-to-serious entitlement claims (23%) and costs (24%) were to participants aged 35 years or older. Rugby union and rugby league have the highest total number and costs associated with injury. Accurate sport exposure data are needed to enable injury risk calculations. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  4. Ergonomic and socioeconomic risk factors for hospital workers' compensation injury claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyer, Jon; Galizzi, Monica; Cifuentes, Manuel; d'Errico, Angelo; Gore, Rebecca; Punnett, Laura; Slatin, Craig

    2009-07-01

    Hospital workers are a diverse population with high rates of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The risk of MSD leading to workers' compensation (WC) claims is likely to show a gradient by socioeconomic status (SES) that may be partly explained by working conditions. A single community hospital provided workforce demographics and WC claim records for 2003-2005. An ergonomic job exposure matrix (JEM) was developed for these healthcare jobs from direct observation of physical workload and extraction of physical and psychosocial job requirements from the O*NET online database. Occupational exposures and SES categories were assigned to workers through their O*NET job titles. Univariate and multivariate Poisson regression analyses were performed to estimate the propensity to file an injury claim in relation to individual factors, occupational exposures, and SES. The jobs with the highest injury rates were nurses, semi-professionals, and semi-skilled. Increased physical work and psychological demands along with low job tenure were associated with an increase in risk, while risk decreased with psychosocial rewards and supervisor support. Both occupational and individual factors mediated the relationship between SES and rate of injury claims. Physical and organizational features of these hospital jobs along with low job tenure predicted WC injury claim risk and explained a substantial proportion of the effects of SES. Further studies that include lifestyle risk factors and control for prior injuries and co-morbidities are warranted to strengthen the current study findings.

  5. Twelve-month discontinuation rates of levonorgestrel intrauterine system 13.5 mg and subdermal etonogestrel implant in women aged 18-44: A retrospective claims database analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Law, Amy; Liao, Laura; Lin, Jay; Yaldo, Avin; Lynen, Richard

    2018-04-21

    To investigate the 12-month discontinuation rates of levonorgestrel intrauterine system 13.5 mg (LNG-IUS 13.5) and subdermal etonogestrel (ENG) implant in the US. We identified women aged 18-44 who had an insertion of LNG-IUS 13.5 or ENG implant from the MarketScan Commercial claims database (7/1/2013-9/30/2014). Women were required to have 12 months of continuous insurance coverage prior to the insertion (baseline) and at least 12-months after (follow-up). Discontinuation was defined as presence of an insurance claim for pregnancy-related services, hysterectomy, female sterilization, a claim for another contraceptive method, or removal of the index contraceptive without re-insertion within 30 days. Using Cox regression we examined the potential impact of ENG implant vs. LNG-IUS 13.5 on the likelihood for discontinuation after controlling for patient characteristics. A total of 3680 (mean age: 25.4 years) LNG-IUS 13.5 and 23,770 (mean age: 24.6 years) ENG implant users met the selection criteria. Prior to insertion, 56.6% of LNG-IUS 13.5 and 42.1% of ENG implant users had used contraceptives, with oral contraceptives being most common (LNG-IUS 13.5: 42.1%; ENG implant: 28.5%). Among users of LNG-IUS 13.5 and ENG implant, rates of discontinuation were similar during the 12-month follow-up (LNG-IUS 13.5: 24.9%; ENG implant: 24.0%). Regression results showed that women using LNG-IUS 13.5 vs. ENG implant had similar likelihood for discontinuation (hazard ratio: 0.97, 95% confidence interval: 0.90-1.05, p=.41). In the real-world US setting, women aged 18-44 using LNG-IUS 13.5 and ENG implant have similar discontinuation rates after 12 months. In the United States, women aged 18-44 using levonorgestrel intrauterine system (13.5 mg) and subdermal etonogestrel implant have similar discontinuation rates after 12 months. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Glycemic control and diabetes-related health care costs in type 2 diabetes; retrospective analysis based on clinical and administrative databases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Degli Esposti L

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Luca Degli Esposti,1 Stefania Saragoni,1 Stefano Buda,1 Alessandra Sturani,2 Ezio Degli Esposti11CliCon Srl, Health, Economics and Outcomes Research, Ravenna, Italy; 2Nephrology and Dialysis Unit, Santa Maria delle Croci Hospital, Ravenna, ItalyBackground: Diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases, and its prevalence is predicted to increase in the next two decades. Diabetes imposes a staggering financial burden on the health care system, so information about the costs and experiences of collecting and reporting quality measures of data is vital for practices deciding whether to adopt quality improvements or monitor existing initiatives. The aim of this study was to quantify the association between health care costs and level of glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes using clinical and administrative databases.Methods: A retrospective analysis using a large administrative database and a clinical registry containing laboratory results was performed. Patients were subdivided according to their glycated hemoglobin level. Multivariate analyses were used to control for differences in potential confounding factors, including age, gender, Charlson comorbidity index, presence of dyslipidemia, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease, and degree of adherence with antidiabetic drugs among the study groups.Results: Of the total population of 700,000 subjects, 31,022 were identified as being diabetic (4.4% of the entire population. Of these, 21,586 met the study inclusion criteria. In total, 31.5% of patients had very poor glycemic control and 25.7% had excellent control. Over 2 years, the mean diabetes-related cost per person was: €1291.56 in patients with excellent control; €1545.99 in those with good control; €1584.07 in those with fair control; €1839.42 in those with poor control; and €1894.80 in those with very poor control. After adjustment, compared with the group having excellent control, the estimated excess cost

  7. Costs and Tariff

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    ... of magnitude as construction costs. Proposed Civil Nuclear Liability Bill 2008: Reactor operators liable for accidents; must take insurance for Rs. 100-300 crores. Tariff: Despite all this, NPCIL claims it will not cost customers more than Rs. 4 per unit incl. waste disposal and decommish. It wont be easy. We wish them luck !

  8. Financial costs due to excess health risks among active employees of a utility company.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yen, Louis; Schultz, Alyssa; Schnueringer, Elaine; Edington, Dee W

    2006-09-01

    The objective of this study was to examine the health risk-related excess costs of time away from work, medical claims, pharmacy claims, and total costs with and without considering the prevalence of health risks. A total of 2082 of 4266 employees of a Midwest utility participated in a health risk appraisal (HRA). Individuals were classified by their HRA participation status and also by 15 health risks. Total and excess costs were analyzed for all employees. There were significant excess costs due to individual risks and overall excess health risks in all cost measures. Both excess cost per risk and prevalence of the risk were important factors in determining the excess costs in the population. As compared with low-risk participants, HRA nonparticipants and the medium- and high-risk participants were 1.99, 2.22, and 3.97 times more likely to be high cost status. Approximately one third of corporate costs in medical claims, pharmacy claims, and time away from work could be defined as excess costs associated with excess health risks.

  9. The effect of pre-existing health conditions on the cost of recovery from road traffic injury: insights from data linkage of medicare and compensable injury claims in Victoria, Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hassani-Mahmooei, Behrooz; Berecki-Gisolf, Janneke; Hahn, Youjin; McClure, Roderick J

    2016-04-29

    Comorbidity is known to affect length of hospital stay and mortality after trauma but less is known about its impact on recovery beyond the immediate post-accident care period. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of pre-existing health conditions in the cost of recovery from road traffic injury using health service use records for 1 year before and after the injury. Individuals who claimed Transport Accident Commission (TAC) compensation for a non-catastrophic injury that occurred between 2010 and 2012 in Victoria, Australia and who provided consent for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) linkage were included (n = 738) in the analysis. PBS and MBS records dating from 12 months prior to injury were provided by the Department of Human Services (Canberra, Australia). Pre-injury use of health service items and pharmaceuticals were considered to indicate pre-existing health condition. Bayesian Model Averaging techniques were used to identify the items that were most strongly correlated with recovery cost. Multivariate regression models were used to determine the impact of these items on the cost of injury recovery in terms of compensated ambulance, hospital, medical, and overall claim cost. Out of the 738 study participants, 688 used at least one medical item (total of 15,625 items) and 427 used at least one pharmaceutical item (total of 9846). The total health service cost of recovery was $10,115,714. The results show that while pre-existing conditions did not have any significant impact on the total cost of recovery, categorical costs were affected: e.g. on average, for every anaesthetic in the year before the accident, hospital cost of recovery increased by 24 % [95 % CI: 13, 36 %] and for each pathological test related to established diabetes, hospital cost increased by $10,407 [5466.78, 15346.28]. For medical costs, each anaesthetic led to $258 higher cost [174.16, 341.16] and every prescription of drugs

  10. Burden of diabetes mellitus estimated with a longitudinal population-based study using administrative databases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luciana Scalone

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To assess the epidemiologic and economic burden of diabetes mellitus (DM from a longitudinal population-based study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Lombardy Region includes 9.9 million individuals. Its DM population was identified through a data warehouse (DENALI, which matches with a probabilistic linkage demographic, clinical and economic data of different Healthcare Administrative databases. All individuals, who, during the year 2000 had an hospital discharge with a IDC-9 CM code 250.XX, and/or two consecutive prescriptions of drugs for diabetes (ATC code A10XXXX within one year, and/or an exemption from co-payment healthcare costs specific for DM, were selected and followed up to 9 years. We calculated prevalence, mortality and healthcare costs (hospitalizations, drugs and outpatient examinations/visits from the National Health Service's perspective. RESULTS: We identified 312,223 eligible subjects. The study population (51% male had a mean age of 66 (from 0.03 to 105.12 years at the index date. Prevalence ranged from 0.4% among subjects aged ≤45 years to 10.1% among those >85 years old. Overall 43.4 deaths per 1,000 patients per year were estimated, significantly (p<0.001 higher in men than women. Overall, 3,315€/patient-year were spent on average: hospitalizations were the cost driver (54.2% of total cost. Drugs contributed to 31.5%, outpatient claims represented 14.3% of total costs. Thirty-five percent of hospital costs were attributable to cerebro-/cardiovascular reasons, 6% to other complications of DM, and 4% to DM as a main diagnosis. Cardiovascular drugs contributed to 33.5% of total drug costs, 21.8% was attributable to class A (16.7% to class A10 and 4.3% to class B (2.4% to class B01 drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Merging different administrative databases can provide with many data from large populations observed for long time periods. DENALI shows to be an efficient instrument to obtain accurate estimates of burden of

  11. Oncology patient-reported claims: maximising the chance for success.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kitchen, H; Rofail, D; Caron, M; Emery, M-P

    2011-01-01

    To review Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) labelling claims achieved in oncology in Europe and in the United States and consider the benefits, and challenges faced. PROLabels database was searched to identify oncology products with PRO labelling approved in Europe since 1995 or in the United States since 1998. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) websites and guidance documents were reviewed. PUBMED was searched for articles on PRO claims in oncology. Among all oncology products approved, 22 were identified with PRO claims; 10 in the United States, 7 in Europe, and 5 in both. The language used in the labelling was limited to benefit (e.g. "…resulted in symptom benefits by significantly prolonging time to deterioration in cough, dyspnoea, and pain, versus placebo") and equivalence (e.g. "no statistical differences were observed between treatment groups for global QoL"). Seven products used a validated HRQoL tool; two used symptom tools; two used both; seven used single-item symptom measures (one was unknown). The following emerged as likely reasons for success: ensuring systematic PRO data collection; clear rationale for pre-specified endpoints; adequately powered trials to detect differences and clinically significant changes; adjusting for multiplicity; developing an a priori statistical analysis plan including primary and subgroup analyses, dealing with missing data, pooling multiple-site data; establishing clinical versus statistical significance; interpreting failure to detect change. End-stage patient drop-out rates and cessation of trials due to exceptional therapeutic benefit pose significant challenges to demonstrating treatment PRO improvement. PRO labelling claims demonstrate treatment impact and the trade-off between efficacy and side effects ultimately facilitating product differentiation. Reliable and valid instruments specific to the desired language, claim, and target population are required. Practical

  12. Should the District Courts Have Jurisdiction Over Pre-Award Contract Claims? A Claim for the Claims Court

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Short, John J

    1987-01-01

    This thesis briefly examines the jurisdiction of the federal district courts and the United States Court of Claims over pre-award contract claims before the Federal Courts Improvement Act of October 1...

  13. 7 CFR 28.125 - No voiding or modifying claims for payment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... Section 28.125 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE COMMODITY STANDARDS AND STANDARD... Standards Act Fees and Costs § 28.125 No voiding or modifying claims for payment. Nothing in this subpart...

  14. Cost of treating sagittal synostosis in the first year of life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbott, Megan M; Rogers, Gary F; Proctor, Mark R; Busa, Kathleen; Meara, John G

    2012-01-01

    Endoscopically assisted suturectomy (EAS) has been reported to reduce the morbidity and cost of treating sagittal synostosis when compared with traditional open cranial vault remodeling (CVR) procedures. Whereas the former claim is well substantiated and intuitive, the latter has not been validated by rigorous cost analysis. Patient medical records and financial database reports were culled retrospectively to determine the total cost associated with both EAS and CVR during 1 year of care. Recorded cost data included physician and hospital services, orthotic equipment and fittings, and indirect patient cost. Ten patients treated with CVR were compared with 10 patients who underwent EAS. The CVR patients incurred greater costs in nearly all categories studied, including overall 1-year costs, physician services, hospital services, supplies/equipment, medications/intravenous fluids, and laboratory and blood bank services. Postoperative costs were greater in the EAS group, primarily because of the cost associated with orthotic services and indirect patient costs for travel and lost work. However, overall indirect patient costs for the whole year did not differ between the groups. One-year median costs were $55,121 for CVR and $23,377 for EAS. Early clinical results were similar for the 2 groups. Cranial vault remodeling was more costly in the first year of treatment than EAS, although indirect patient costs were similar. The favorable cost of EAS compared with CVR provides further justification to consider this procedure as first-line treatment of sagittal synostosis in young infants.

  15. Comparison of health care resource utilization and costs among patients with GERD on once-daily or twice-daily proton pump inhibitor therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mody R

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Reema Mody,1 Debra Eisenberg,2 Likun Hou,2 Siddhesh Kamat,2 Joseph Singer,2 Lauren B Gerson3 1Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Inc, Deerfield, IL, 2HealthCore Inc, Wilmington, DE, 3Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA Background: The purpose of this study was to assess differences in health care resource utilization and costs associated with once-daily and twice-daily proton pump inhibitor (PPI therapy. Most patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD achieve symptom control on once-daily PPI therapy, but approximately 20%–30% require twice-daily dosing. Methods: Patients were ≥18 years of age with at least one medical claim for GERD and at least two PPI claims from HealthCore's Integrated Research Database (HIRDSM during 2004–2009. Patients were continuously eligible for 12 months before and after the index date (date of first PPI claim. Based on PPI dosing throughout the post-index period (quantity of medication dispensed/number of days supply, patients were classified as once-daily (dose ≤ 1.5 pills per day or twice-daily (≥1.5 PPI users. Results: The study cohort included 248,386 patients with GERD (mean age 52.8 ± 13.93 years, 56% females of whom 90% were once-daily and 10% were twice-daily PPI users. The Deyo-Charlson Comorbidity Index for once-daily and twice-daily PPI users was 0.70 ± 1.37 and 0.89 ± 1.54, respectively (P < 0.05. More once-daily patients had claims for Barrett's esophagus (5% versus 2%, P < 0.0001 than twice-daily patients. Post-index, higher proportions of twice-daily patients had at least one GERD-related inpatient visit (7% versus 5%, outpatient visit (60% versus 49%, and office visit (48% versus 38% versus once-daily patients (P < 0.0001. Mean total GERD-related health care costs were $2065 ± $6636 versus $3749 ± $11,081 for once-daily and twice-daily PPI users, respectively (P < 0.0001. Conclusion: Patients receiving twice-daily PPI therapy were likely to have more

  16. Lawsuits After Primary and Revision Total Hip Arthroplasties: A Malpractice Claims Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, Diana C; Grelsamer, Ronald P; Bronson, Michael J; Moucha, Calin S

    2017-10-01

    As the prevalence of total hip arthroplasty (THA) expands, so too will complications and patient dissatisfaction. The goal of this study was to identify the common etiologies of malpractice suits and costs of claims after primary and revision THAs. Analysis of 115 malpractice claims filed for alleged neglectful primary and revision THA surgeries by orthopedic surgeons insured by a large New York state malpractice carrier between 1983 and 2011. The incidence of malpractice claims filed for negligent THA procedures is only 0.15% per year in our population. In primary cases, nerve injury ("foot drop") was the most frequent allegation with 27 claims. Negligent surgery causing dislocation was alleged in 18 and leg length discrepancy in 14. Medical complications were also reported, including 3 thromboembolic events and 6 deaths. In revision cases, dislocation and infection were the most common source of suits. The average indemnity payment was $386,153 and the largest single settlement was $4.1 million for an arterial injury resulting in amputation after a primary hip replacement. The average litigation cost to the insurer was $61,833. Nerve injury, dislocation, and leg length discrepancy are the most common reason for malpractice after primary THA. Orthopedic surgeons should continue to focus on minimizing the occurrence of these complications while adequately incorporating details about the risks and limitations of surgery into their preoperative education. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. In-hospital costs associated with chronic constipation in Belgium: a retrospective database study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chevalier, P; Lamotte, M; Joseph, A; Dubois, D; Boeckxstaens, G

    2014-03-01

    Real-life data on the economic burden of chronic idiopathic constipation are scarce. The objectives of this study were to assess hospitalization resource use and costs associated with chronic constipation and its complications in Belgium. This was a single country, retrospective study using the IMS Hospital Disease Database (2008), which comprises data on 34% of acute hospital beds in Belgium and contains information on patient demographics, length of stay (LOS), billed costs, drug use, diagnoses, and procedures. Stays with a primary diagnosis of constipation, or a secondary diagnosis of constipation and a concomitant diagnosis of a constipation-related complication, were selected. Patients with diagnoses of colorectal cancer, ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, or who had stays involving potentially constipation-inducing procedures, were excluded as having secondary constipation. Patients receiving opioids, calcium-antagonists, antipsychotics or antidepressants were excluded as having drug-induced constipation. In total, 1541 eligible patients were identified. The average unadjusted cost per day in hospital for idiopathic constipation was €441 (€311 ± 1.4 in day clinic visits without overnight stays; €711 ± 14.0 in full hospitalizations with complications). The average LOS in a full hospitalization setting was 7.0 and 4.0 days in stays with and without complications, respectively. The most frequent drug and procedural treatments were osmotically acting laxatives (with complications: 42.61%; without complications: 35.69%), and transanal enema (2.32% and 2.03%), respectively. The burden of constipation is often underestimated; it is a condition reflected by hospital-related costs comparable to such indications as migraine, which increase when associated with complications. © 2013 The Authors. Neurogastroenterology & Motility Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. The hidden costs of nuclear energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sweet, C.

    1978-01-01

    A lynch pin of the pro-nuclear argument is that atomic energy provides cheap electricity. Many are sceptical of such claims, realising that a lot of figures have been omitted from the accounting - the cost of R and D, of dismantling the obsolete stations and of waste management - but having no access to all the figures, such scepticism has remained little more than a hunch. Using conventional economic accounting it is shown that nuclear power must be considerably more costly than has ever been admitted by any of the authorities. The CEGB claims that reprocessing amounts to no more than 8 per cent of the total costs of nuclear generated electricity. According to the present author the costs are 20 per cent - and that 20 per cent is of a much higher figure. (author)

  19. Transmission line capital costs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hughes, K.R.; Brown, D.R.

    1995-05-01

    The displacement or deferral of conventional AC transmission line installation is a key benefit associated with several technologies being developed with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Management (OEM). Previous benefits assessments conducted within OEM have been based on significantly different assumptions for the average cost per mile of AC transmission line. In response to this uncertainty, an investigation of transmission line capital cost data was initiated. The objective of this study was to develop a database for preparing preliminary estimates of transmission line costs. An extensive search of potential data sources identified databases maintained by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) as superior sources of transmission line cost data. The BPA and WAPA data were adjusted to a common basis and combined together. The composite database covers voltage levels from 13.8 to 765 W, with cost estimates for a given voltage level varying depending on conductor size, tower material type, tower frame type, and number of circuits. Reported transmission line costs vary significantly, even for a given voltage level. This can usually be explained by variation in the design factors noted above and variation in environmental and land (right-of-way) costs, which are extremely site-specific. Cost estimates prepared from the composite database were compared to cost data collected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for investor-owned utilities from across the United States. The comparison was hampered because the only design specifications included with the FERC data were voltage level and line length. Working within this limitation, the FERC data were not found to differ significantly from the composite database. Therefore, the composite database was judged to be a reasonable proxy for estimating national average costs

  20. Risk of Contractors’ Claims On the Example of Road Works

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rybka, Iwona; Bondar-Nowakowska, Elżbieta; Pawluk, Katarzyna; Połoński, Mieczysław

    2017-10-01

    The aim of the study is to analyse claims filed by building contractors during the project implementation. The work is divided into two parts. In the first part problems associated with the management of claims in the construction process were discussed. Bearing in mind that claims may result in prolongation of the investment or exceeding planned budget, possibilities of applying information included in documents connected with claims procedure to risk management was analysed in the second part of the study. The basis of the analysis is a review of 226 documents. They originate from 8 construction sites completed in the last 5 years in southwestern Poland. In each case, these were linear road projects, executed by different contractors, according to conditions in the contract set out in the “Yellow Book” FIDIC. In the study, other documents relating events that according to contractors entitled them to claim were also analysed. They included among others: project documentation, terms of reference, construction log, reports and correspondence under the contract. The events constituting the reason for contractors` claims were classified according to their sources. 8 areas of potential threats were distinguished. They were presented in the form of a block diagram. Most events initiating the claims were reported in the following group - adverse actions of third parties, while the fewest were recorded in the group - the lack of access to the construction site. Based on calculated similarity indicators it was found that considered construction sites were diversified in terms of the number of the events occurrence that generated the claim and their sources. In recent years, many road projects are completed behind the schedule and their initially planned budgets are significantly exceeded. Conducted research indicated that data derived from the analysis of documents connected with claims can be applied to identify and classify both cost and schedule risk factors

  1. A Systematic Method to Analyze Force Majeure in Construction Claims

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saud Alshammari

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In construction delay claims, force majeure is normally recognized as an excusable risk that entitles contractors only to time extensions, but neither of the contracting parties is entitled to monetary compensation to recover delay damages. However, there are instances where contractors are entitled to both time and cost compensations, as evidenced by some court cases relating to force majeure claims. Such instances involve attributing the occurrence of the force majeure to the effect of other prior delay events that pushed project performance into the period of the force majeure. Existing delay analysis methods are not capable of addressing this issue, as none take the impact of other delays into consideration when analyzing force majeure claims. Stimulated by this gap, this study proposes an improved and sound method for fairly analyzing the responsibility of force majeure delay claims amongst contracting parties. This method was implemented on a case project to help demonstrate its application and also ascertain its practicability. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it has highlighted the situation of force majeure delay that can be compensable, creating more awareness among researchers and industry practitioners. The second is a proposed systematic process to appropriately analyze its responsibility, which equitably addresses claims from such delays with little or no chance of dispute ensuing.

  2. Drug utilization and cost in a Medicaid population: A simulation study of community vs. mail order pharmacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seoane-Vazquez Enrique

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Outpatient drugs are dispensed through both community and mail order pharmacies. There is no empirical evidence that substitution of community pharmacy with mail order reduces overall drug expenditures. The need for evaluating the potential effects on utilization and costs of the possible extension of mail order services in Medicaid provides the rationale for conducting this study. This study compares drug utilization and drug product cost in community vs. mail order pharmacy dispensing services in a Medicaid population. Methods This study is a retrospective cohort study comparing utilization and cost patterns in community vs. mail order pharmacy. A simulation model was employed to assess drug utilization and cost in mail order pharmacy using community pharmacy claim data. The model assumed that courses of drug therapy (CDT in mail order pharmacy would have utilization patterns similar to those found in community pharmacy. A 95% confidence interval surrounding changes in average utilization and average cost were estimated using bootstrap analysis. A sensitivity analysis was performed by varying drug selection criteria and supply, fill point, and medication possession ratio (MPR. Sub-analyses were performed to address differences between mail order and community pharmacy related to therapeutic class and dual-eligible patients. Data for the study derived from pharmacy claims database of Ohio Medicaid State program for the period January 2000-September 2004. Drug claims were aggregated to obtain a set of CDTs representing unique patient IDs and unique drug products. Drug product cost estimates excluded dispensing fees and were used to estimate the cost reduction required in mail order to become cost neutral in comparison with community pharmacy. Results The baseline model revealed that the use of mail order vs. community pharmacy would result in a 5.5% increase in drug utilization and a 5.4% cost reduction required in mail order

  3. Intensive treatment for adults with anorexia nervosa: The cost of weight restoration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guarda, Angela S; Schreyer, Colleen C; Fischer, Laura K; Hansen, Jennifer L; Coughlin, Janelle W; Kaminsky, Michael J; Attia, Evelyn; Redgrave, Graham W

    2017-03-01

    Weight restoration in anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with lower relapse risk; however rate of weight gain and percent of patients achieving weight restoration (BMI ≥ 19 at discharge) vary among treatment programs. We compared both cost/pound of weight gained and cost of weight restoration in a hospital-based inpatient (IP)-partial hospitalization (PH) eating disorders program to estimates of these costs for residential treatment. All adult first admissions to the IP-PH program with AN (N = 314) from 2003 to 2015 were included. Cost of care was based on hospital charges, rates of weight gain, and weight restoration data. Results were compared with residential treatment costs extracted from a national insurance claims database and published weight gain data. Average charge/day in the IP-PH program was $2295 for IP and $1567 for PH, yielding an average cost/pound gained of $4089 and $7050, respectively, with 70% of patients achieving weight restoration. Based on published mean weight gain data and conservative cost/day estimates, residential treatment is associated with higher cost/pound, and both higher cost and lower likelihood of weight restoration for most patients. The key metrics used in this study are recommended for comparing the cost-effectiveness of intensive treatment programs for patients with AN. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Framing and Claiming: How Information-Framing Affects Expected Social Security Claiming Behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Jeffrey R; Kapteyn, Arie; Mitchell, Olivia S

    2016-03-01

    This paper provides evidence that Social Security benefit claiming decisions are strongly affected by framing and are thus inconsistent with expected utility theory. Using a randomized experiment that controls for both observable and unobservable differences across individuals, we find that the use of a "breakeven analysis" encourages early claiming. Respondents are more likely to delay when later claiming is framed as a gain, and the claiming age is anchored at older ages. Additionally, the financially less literate, individuals with credit card debt, and those with lower earnings are more influenced by framing than others.

  5. SyncClaimService

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Veterans Affairs — Provides various methods to sync Claim related data for NWQ processing. It includes web operations to get Claims, get Unique Contention Classifications, get Unique...

  6. A child's potential claim for negligent misdiagnosis: The case of H v ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    South African law recognises a financial claim against a health provider for negligently failing to ... costs of now caring for a child who has serious health challenges or ... provider was liable against either the parent or the child and not to.

  7. Architecture of Automated Database Tuning Using SGA Parameters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hitesh KUMAR SHARMA

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Business Data always growth from kilo byte, mega byte, giga byte, tera byte, peta byte, and so far. There is no way to avoid this increasing rate of data till business still running. Because of this issue, database tuning be critical part of a information system. Tuning a database in a cost-effective manner is a growing challenge. The total cost of ownership (TCO of information technology needs to be significantly reduced by minimizing people costs. In fact, mistakes in operations and administration of information systems are the single most reasons for system outage and unacceptable performance [3]. One way of addressing the challenge of total cost of ownership is by making information systems more self-managing. A particularly difficult piece of the ambitious vision of making database systems self-managing is the automation of database performance tuning. In this paper, we will explain the progress made thus far on this important problem. Specifically, we will propose the architecture and Algorithm for this problem.

  8. Cost analysis of paroxetine versus imipramine in major depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bentkover, J D; Feighner, J P

    1995-09-01

    A simulation decision analytical model was used to compare the annual direct medical costs of treating patients with major depression using the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) paroxetine or the tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) imipramine. Medical treatment patterns were determined from focus groups of general and family practitioners and psychiatrists in Boston, Dallas and Chicago, US. Direct medical costs included the wholesale drug acquisition costs (based on a 6-month course of drug therapy), psychiatrist and/or general practitioner visits, hospital outpatient visits, hospitalisation and electroconvulsive therapy. Acute phase treatment failure rates were derived from an intention-to-treat analysis of a previously published trial of paroxetine, imipramine and placebo in patients with major depression. Maintenance phase relapse rates were obtained from a 12-month trial of paroxetine, supplemented from the medical literature. The relapse rates for the final 6 months of the year were obtained from medical literature and expert opinion. Direct medical costs were estimated from a health insurance claims database. The estimated total direct medical cost per patient was slightly lower using paroxetine ($US2348) than generic imipramine ($US2448) as first-line therapy. This result was sensitive to short term dropout rates but robust to changes in other major parameters, including hospitalisation costs and relapse rates. The financial benefit of paroxetine, despite its 15-fold higher acquisition cost compared with imipramine, is attributable to a higher rate of completion of the initial course of therapy and consequent reduced hospitalisation rates.

  9. Framing and Claiming: How Information-Framing Affects Expected Social Security Claiming Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Jeffrey R.; Kapteyn, Arie; Mitchell, Olivia S.

    2017-01-01

    This paper provides evidence that Social Security benefit claiming decisions are strongly affected by framing and are thus inconsistent with expected utility theory. Using a randomized experiment that controls for both observable and unobservable differences across individuals, we find that the use of a “breakeven analysis” encourages early claiming. Respondents are more likely to delay when later claiming is framed as a gain, and the claiming age is anchored at older ages. Additionally, the financially less literate, individuals with credit card debt, and those with lower earnings are more influenced by framing than others. PMID:28579641

  10. Burden and treatment patterns of advanced basal cell carcinoma among commercially insured patients in a United States database from 2010 to 2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Migden, Michael; Xie, Jipan; Wei, Jin; Tang, Wenxi; Herrera, Vivian; Palmer, Jacqueline B

    2017-07-01

    The burden of advanced basal cell carcinoma (aBCC) is not fully understood. To compare BCC disease burden and treatment patterns for aBCC with those for non-aBCC. A retrospective, insurance claims-based study design was used. Adults with ≥2 claims associated with a BCC diagnosis (ICD-9-CM 173.x1) separated by ≥30 days on or after October 1, 2011, were classified as aBCC or non-aBCC by using an algorithm based on metastasis diagnosis, radiation therapy use, and medical oncologist/other specialist use. Non-aBCC and aBCC patients were matched 1:1 on the basis of age, sex, and region, and assigned the same index date (date of first qualifying diagnosis or event). Comparisons were made using Wilcoxon signed-rank (continuous variables) and McNemar's (categorical variables) tests. In total, 847 matched aBCC/non-aBCC patient pairs were selected (mean age 75 years; 57% men; locally advanced BCC, n = 826; metastatic BCC, n = 21). During the 12-month study period following the index date, aBCC patients had a significantly higher mean Charlson Comorbidity Index (P = .0023), significantly higher mean numbers of outpatient/dermatologist/medical oncologist visits (all P < .0001), and significantly higher mean total/medical/inpatient/outpatient/BCC treatment costs (all P < .05). This study only included information from a database on commercial insurance and Medicare claims. The algorithm criteria might have restricted patient numbers; data were not fully reflective of targeted therapy era. aBCC patients had a higher disease burden than non-aBCC patients. Cost differences were largely driven by higher BCC treatment costs, specifically radiation therapy. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Malpractice claims in interventional radiology: frequency, characteristics and protective measures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magnavita, N; Fileni, A; Mirk, P; Magnavita, G; Ricci, S; Cotroneo, A R

    2013-04-01

    The use of interventional radiology procedures has considerably increased in recent years, as has the number of related medicolegal litigations. This study aimed to highlight the problems underlying malpractice claims in interventional radiology and to assess the importance of the informed consent process. The authors examined all insurance claims relating to presumed errors in interventional radiology filed by radiologists over a period of 14 years after isolating them from the insurance database of all radiologists registered with the Italian Society of Medical Radiology (SIRM) between 1 January1993 and 31 December 2006. In the period considered, 98 malpractice claims were filed against radiologists who had performed interventional radiology procedures. In 21 cases (21.4%), the event had caused the patient's death. In >80% of cases, the event occurred in a public facility. The risk of a malpractice claim for a radiologist practising interventional procedures is 47 per 1,000, which corresponds to one malpractice claim for each 231 years of activity. Interventional radiology, a discipline with a biological risk profile similar to that of surgery, exposes practitioners to a high risk of medicolegal litigation both because of problems intrinsic to the techniques used and because of the need to operate on severely ill patients with compromised clinical status. Litigation prevention largely depends on both reducing the rate of medical error and providing the patient with correct and coherent information. Adopting good radiological practices, scrupulous review of procedures and efficiency of the instruments used and audit of organisational and management processes are all factors that can help reduce the likelihood of error. Improving communication techniques while safeguarding the patient's right to autonomy also implies adopting clear and rigorous processes for obtaining the patient's informed consent to the medical procedure.

  12. A review of accessibility of administrative healthcare databases in the Asia-Pacific region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milea, Dominique; Azmi, Soraya; Reginald, Praveen; Verpillat, Patrice; Francois, Clement

    2015-01-01

    We describe and compare the availability and accessibility of administrative healthcare databases (AHDB) in several Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. The study included hospital records, reimbursement databases, prescription databases, and data linkages. Databases were first identified through PubMed, Google Scholar, and the ISPOR database register. Database custodians were contacted. Six criteria were used to assess the databases and provided the basis for a tool to categorise databases into seven levels ranging from least accessible (Level 1) to most accessible (Level 7). We also categorised overall data accessibility for each country as high, medium, or low based on accessibility of databases as well as the number of academic articles published using the databases. Fifty-four administrative databases were identified. Only a limited number of databases allowed access to raw data and were at Level 7 [Medical Data Vision EBM Provider, Japan Medical Data Centre (JMDC) Claims database and Nihon-Chouzai Pharmacy Claims database in Japan, and Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), HealthLinQ, Victorian Data Linkages (VDL), SA-NT DataLink in Australia]. At Levels 3-6 were several databases from Japan [Hamamatsu Medical University Database, Medi-Trend, Nihon University School of Medicine Clinical Data Warehouse (NUSM)], Australia [Western Australia Data Linkage (WADL)], Taiwan [National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)], South Korea [Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)], and Malaysia [United Nations University (UNU)-Casemix]. Countries were categorised as having a high level of data accessibility (Australia, Taiwan, and Japan), medium level of accessibility (South Korea), or a low level of accessibility (Thailand, China, Malaysia, and Singapore). In some countries, data may be available but accessibility was restricted

  13. A review of accessibility of administrative healthcare databases in the Asia-Pacific region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milea, Dominique; Azmi, Soraya; Reginald, Praveen; Verpillat, Patrice; Francois, Clement

    2015-01-01

    Objective We describe and compare the availability and accessibility of administrative healthcare databases (AHDB) in several Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. Methods The study included hospital records, reimbursement databases, prescription databases, and data linkages. Databases were first identified through PubMed, Google Scholar, and the ISPOR database register. Database custodians were contacted. Six criteria were used to assess the databases and provided the basis for a tool to categorise databases into seven levels ranging from least accessible (Level 1) to most accessible (Level 7). We also categorised overall data accessibility for each country as high, medium, or low based on accessibility of databases as well as the number of academic articles published using the databases. Results Fifty-four administrative databases were identified. Only a limited number of databases allowed access to raw data and were at Level 7 [Medical Data Vision EBM Provider, Japan Medical Data Centre (JMDC) Claims database and Nihon-Chouzai Pharmacy Claims database in Japan, and Medicare, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), HealthLinQ, Victorian Data Linkages (VDL), SA-NT DataLink in Australia]. At Levels 3–6 were several databases from Japan [Hamamatsu Medical University Database, Medi-Trend, Nihon University School of Medicine Clinical Data Warehouse (NUSM)], Australia [Western Australia Data Linkage (WADL)], Taiwan [National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD)], South Korea [Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)], and Malaysia [United Nations University (UNU)-Casemix]. Countries were categorised as having a high level of data accessibility (Australia, Taiwan, and Japan), medium level of accessibility (South Korea), or a low level of accessibility (Thailand, China, Malaysia, and Singapore). In some countries, data may be available but

  14. Unsupervised Labeling Of Data For Supervised Learning And Its Application To Medical Claims Prediction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Che Ngufor

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The task identifying changes and irregularities in medical insurance claim pay-ments is a difficult process of which the traditional practice involves queryinghistorical claims databases and flagging potential claims as normal or abnor-mal. Because what is considered as normal payment is usually unknown andmay change over time, abnormal payments often pass undetected; only to bediscovered when the payment period has passed.This paper presents the problem of on-line unsupervised learning from datastreams when the distribution that generates the data changes or drifts overtime. Automated algorithms for detecting drifting concepts in a probabilitydistribution of the data are presented. The idea behind the presented driftdetection methods is to transform the distribution of the data within a slidingwindow into a more convenient distribution. Then, a test statistics p-value ata given significance level can be used to infer the drift rate, adjust the windowsize and decide on the status of the drift. The detected concepts drifts areused to label the data, for subsequent learning of classification models by asupervised learner. The algorithms were tested on several synthetic and realmedical claims data sets.

  15. 15 CFR 923.93 - Eligible implementation costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Eligible implementation costs. 923.93... MANAGEMENT COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM REGULATIONS Applications for Program Development or Implementation Grants § 923.93 Eligible implementation costs. (a) Costs claimed must be beneficial and necessary to the...

  16. Association of prescription abandonment with cost share for high-cost specialty pharmacy medications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gleason, Patrick P; Starner, Catherine I; Gunderson, Brent W; Schafer, Jeremy A; Sarran, H Scott

    2009-10-01

    In 2008, specialty medications accounted for 15.1% of total pharmacy benefit medication spending, and per member expenditures have increased by 11.1% annually from 2004 to 2008 within a commercially insured population of 8 million members. Insurers face increasing pressure to control specialty medication expenditures and to rely on increasing member cost share through creation of a fourth copayment tier within the incentive-based formulary pharmacy benefit system. Data are needed on the influence that member out-of-pocket (OOP) expense may have on prescription abandonment (defined as the patient never actually taking possession of the medication despite evidence of a written prescription generated by a prescriber). To explore the relationship between prescription abandonment and OOP expense among individuals newly initiating high-cost medication therapy with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocker or multiple sclerosis (MS) biologic agent. This observational cross-sectional study queried a midwestern and southern U.S. database of 13,172,480 commercially insured individuals to find members with a pharmacy benefit-adjudicated claim for a TNF blocker or MS specialty medication during the period from July 2006 through June 2008. Prescription abandonment was assessed among continuously enrolled members newly initiating TNF blocker or MS therapy. Prescription abandonment was defined as reversal of the adjudicated claim with no evidence of a subsequent additional adjudicated paid claim in the ensuing 90 days. Separate analyses for MS and TNF blocker therapy were performed to assess the association between member OOP expense and abandonment rate using the Cochran-Armitage test for trend and multivariate logistic regression. Members were placed into 1 of the 7 following OOP expense groups per claim: $0-$100, $101-$150, $151-$200, $201-$250, $251-$350, $351-$500, or more than $500. The association of MS or TNF blocker abandonment rate with OOP expense was tested with logistic

  17. Formalizing Probabilistic Safety Claims

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herencia-Zapana, Heber; Hagen, George E.; Narkawicz, Anthony J.

    2011-01-01

    A safety claim for a system is a statement that the system, which is subject to hazardous conditions, satisfies a given set of properties. Following work by John Rushby and Bev Littlewood, this paper presents a mathematical framework that can be used to state and formally prove probabilistic safety claims. It also enables hazardous conditions, their uncertainties, and their interactions to be integrated into the safety claim. This framework provides a formal description of the probabilistic composition of an arbitrary number of hazardous conditions and their effects on system behavior. An example is given of a probabilistic safety claim for a conflict detection algorithm for aircraft in a 2D airspace. The motivation for developing this mathematical framework is that it can be used in an automated theorem prover to formally verify safety claims.

  18. Organized investigation expedites insurance claims following a blowout

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Armstreet, R.

    1996-01-01

    Various types of insurance policies cover blowouts to different degrees, and a proper understanding of the incident and the coverage can expedite the adjustment process. Every well control incident, and the claim arising therefrom, has a unique set of circumstances which must be analyzed thoroughly. A blowout incident, no matter what size or how severe, can have an emotional impact on all who become involved. Bodily injuries or death of friends and coworkers can result in additional stress following a blowout. Thus, it is important that all parties involved remain mindful of sensitive matters when investigating a blowout. This paper reviews the definition of a blowout based on insurance procedures and claims. It reviews blowout expenses and contractor cost and accepted well control policies. Finally, it reviews the investigation procedures normally followed by an agent and the types of information requested from the operator

  19. Antibiotics in Dutch General Practice: electronic GP databases and national reimbursement data.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kuyvenhoven, M.; Akkerman, A.E.; Dijk, L. van; Verheij, T.J.M.

    2007-01-01

    Background. A variety of databases such as data from registration forms, electronic patient records and claims data of health insurance companies, are used in evaluation studies on antimicrobial management in general practice. Aim. To assess to which degree prescribing figures for systemic

  20. 32 CFR 536.77 - Applicable law for claims under the Military Claims Act.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... contributory negligence be interpreted and applied according to the law of the place of the occurrence... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Applicable law for claims under the Military... Act § 536.77 Applicable law for claims under the Military Claims Act. (a) General principles—(1) Tort...

  1. Economic burden of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation: a retrospective analysis of health care costs in a commercially insured population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doshi, Jalpa A; Cai, Qian; Buono, Jessica L; Spalding, William M; Sarocco, Phil; Tan, Hiangkiat; Stephenson, Judith J; Carson, Robyn T

    2014-04-01

    The prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) is estimated to be between 4.3% and 5.2% among adults in the United States. Little is known about the health care resource utilization and costs associated with IBS-C. To (a) evaluate the annual total all-cause, gastrointestinal (GI)-related, and IBS-C-related health care costs among IBS-C patients seeking medical care in a commercially insured population and (b) estimate the incremental all-cause health care costs among IBS-C patients relative to matched controls. Patients aged ≥ 18 years with continuous medical and pharmacy benefit eligibility in 2010 were identified from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database, which consists of administrative claims from 14 geographically dispersed U.S. health plans representing 45 million lives. IBS-C patients were defined as those with ≥ 1 medical claim with an ICD-9-CM diagnosis code in any position for IBS (ICD-9-CM 564.1x) and either ≥ 2 medical claims for constipation (ICD-9-CM 564.0x) on different service dates or ≥ 1 medical claim for constipation plus ≥ 1 pharmacy claim for a constipation-related prescription on different dates of service during the study period. Controls were defined as patients without any medical claims for IBS, constipation, abdominal pain, or bloating or pharmacy claims for constipation-related prescriptions. Controls were randomly selected and matched with IBS-C patients in a 1:1 ratio based on age (± 4 years), gender, health plan region, and health plan type. Patients with diagnoses or prescriptions suggesting mixed IBS, IBS with diarrhea, chronic diarrhea, or drug-induced constipation were excluded. Total health care costs in 2010 U.S. dollars were defined as the sum of health plan and patient paid costs for prescriptions and medical services, including inpatient visits, emergency room (ER) visits, physician office visits, and other outpatient services. The total cost approach was used to assess

  2. Cost benefit analysis of power plant database integration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilber, B.E.; Cimento, A.; Stuart, R.

    1988-01-01

    A cost benefit analysis of plant wide data integration allows utility management to evaluate integration and automation benefits from an economic perspective. With this evaluation, the utility can determine both the quantitative and qualitative savings that can be expected from data integration. The cost benefit analysis is then a planning tool which helps the utility to develop a focused long term implementation strategy that will yield significant near term benefits. This paper presents a flexible cost benefit analysis methodology which is both simple to use and yields accurate, verifiable results. Included in this paper is a list of parameters to consider, a procedure for performing the cost savings analysis, and samples of this procedure when applied to a utility. A case study is presented involving a specific utility where this procedure was applied. Their uses of the cost-benefit analysis are also described

  3. Ultra-processed family foods in Australia: nutrition claims, health claims and marketing techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pulker, Claire Elizabeth; Scott, Jane Anne; Pollard, Christina Mary

    2018-01-01

    To objectively evaluate voluntary nutrition and health claims and marketing techniques present on packaging of high-market-share ultra-processed foods (UPF) in Australia for their potential impact on public health. Cross-sectional. Packaging information from five high-market-share food manufacturers and one retailer were obtained from supermarket and manufacturers' websites. Ingredients lists for 215 UPF were examined for presence of added sugar. Packaging information was categorised using a taxonomy of nutrition and health information which included nutrition and health claims and five common food marketing techniques. Compliance of statements and claims with the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code and with Health Star Ratings (HSR) were assessed for all products. Almost all UPF (95 %) contained added sugars described in thirty-four different ways; 55 % of UPF displayed a HSR; 56 % had nutrition claims (18 % were compliant with regulations); 25 % had health claims (79 % were compliant); and 97 % employed common food marketing techniques. Packaging of 47 % of UPF was designed to appeal to children. UPF carried a mean of 1·5 health and nutrition claims (range 0-10) and 2·6 marketing techniques (range 0-5), and 45 % had HSR≤3·0/5·0. Most UPF packaging featured nutrition and health statements or claims despite the high prevalence of added sugars and moderate HSR. The degree of inappropriate or inaccurate statements and claims present is concerning, particularly on packaging designed to appeal to children. Public policies to assist parents to select healthy family foods should address the quality and accuracy of information provided on UPF packaging.

  4. 47 CFR 69.120 - Line information database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Line information database. 69.120 Section 69...) ACCESS CHARGES Computation of Charges § 69.120 Line information database. (a) A charge that is expressed... from a local exchange carrier database to recover the costs of: (1) The transmission facilities between...

  5. Inferring pregnancy episodes and outcomes within a network of observational databases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amy Matcho

    Full Text Available Administrative claims and electronic health records are valuable resources for evaluating pharmaceutical effects during pregnancy. However, direct measures of gestational age are generally not available. Establishing a reliable approach to infer the duration and outcome of a pregnancy could improve pharmacovigilance activities. We developed and applied an algorithm to define pregnancy episodes in four observational databases: three US-based claims databases: Truven MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters (CCAE, Truven MarketScan® Multi-state Medicaid (MDCD, and the Optum ClinFormatics® (Optum database and one non-US database, the United Kingdom (UK based Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD. Pregnancy outcomes were classified as live births, stillbirths, abortions and ectopic pregnancies. Start dates were estimated using a derived hierarchy of available pregnancy markers, including records such as last menstrual period and nuchal ultrasound dates. Validation included clinical adjudication of 700 electronic Optum and CPRD pregnancy episode profiles to assess the operating characteristics of the algorithm, and a comparison of the algorithm's Optum pregnancy start estimates to starts based on dates of assisted conception procedures. Distributions of pregnancy outcome types were similar across all four data sources and pregnancy episode lengths found were as expected for all outcomes, excepting term lengths in episodes that used amenorrhea and urine pregnancy tests for start estimation. Validation survey results found highest agreement between reviewer chosen and algorithm operating characteristics for questions assessing pregnancy status and accuracy of outcome category with 99-100% agreement for Optum and CPRD. Outcome date agreement within seven days in either direction ranged from 95-100%, while start date agreement within seven days in either direction ranged from 90-97%. In Optum validation sensitivity analysis, a total of 73% of

  6. Inferring pregnancy episodes and outcomes within a network of observational databases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryan, Patrick; Fife, Daniel; Gifkins, Dina; Knoll, Chris; Friedman, Andrew

    2018-01-01

    Administrative claims and electronic health records are valuable resources for evaluating pharmaceutical effects during pregnancy. However, direct measures of gestational age are generally not available. Establishing a reliable approach to infer the duration and outcome of a pregnancy could improve pharmacovigilance activities. We developed and applied an algorithm to define pregnancy episodes in four observational databases: three US-based claims databases: Truven MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters (CCAE), Truven MarketScan® Multi-state Medicaid (MDCD), and the Optum ClinFormatics® (Optum) database and one non-US database, the United Kingdom (UK) based Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Pregnancy outcomes were classified as live births, stillbirths, abortions and ectopic pregnancies. Start dates were estimated using a derived hierarchy of available pregnancy markers, including records such as last menstrual period and nuchal ultrasound dates. Validation included clinical adjudication of 700 electronic Optum and CPRD pregnancy episode profiles to assess the operating characteristics of the algorithm, and a comparison of the algorithm’s Optum pregnancy start estimates to starts based on dates of assisted conception procedures. Distributions of pregnancy outcome types were similar across all four data sources and pregnancy episode lengths found were as expected for all outcomes, excepting term lengths in episodes that used amenorrhea and urine pregnancy tests for start estimation. Validation survey results found highest agreement between reviewer chosen and algorithm operating characteristics for questions assessing pregnancy status and accuracy of outcome category with 99–100% agreement for Optum and CPRD. Outcome date agreement within seven days in either direction ranged from 95–100%, while start date agreement within seven days in either direction ranged from 90–97%. In Optum validation sensitivity analysis, a total of 73% of

  7. Comparing deep neural network and other machine learning algorithms for stroke prediction in a large-scale population-based electronic medical claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen-Ying Hung; Wei-Chen Chen; Po-Tsun Lai; Ching-Heng Lin; Chi-Chun Lee

    2017-07-01

    Electronic medical claims (EMCs) can be used to accurately predict the occurrence of a variety of diseases, which can contribute to precise medical interventions. While there is a growing interest in the application of machine learning (ML) techniques to address clinical problems, the use of deep-learning in healthcare have just gained attention recently. Deep learning, such as deep neural network (DNN), has achieved impressive results in the areas of speech recognition, computer vision, and natural language processing in recent years. However, deep learning is often difficult to comprehend due to the complexities in its framework. Furthermore, this method has not yet been demonstrated to achieve a better performance comparing to other conventional ML algorithms in disease prediction tasks using EMCs. In this study, we utilize a large population-based EMC database of around 800,000 patients to compare DNN with three other ML approaches for predicting 5-year stroke occurrence. The result shows that DNN and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) can result in similarly high prediction accuracies that are better compared to logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM) approaches. Meanwhile, DNN achieves optimal results by using lesser amounts of patient data when comparing to GBDT method.

  8. 45 CFR 147.136 - Internal claims and appeals and external review processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ..., appropriateness, health care setting, level of care, or effectiveness of a covered benefit. (ii) The State process... pay the cost of the IRO for conducting the external review. Notwithstanding this requirement, the... not impose, for example, a $500 minimum claims threshold. (vi) The State process must allow at least...

  9. Claiming health in food products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lähteenmäki, Liisa

    2013-01-01

    Health-related information is increasingly used on food products to convey their benefits. Health claims as a subcategory of these messages link the beneficial component, functions or health outcomes with specific products. For consumers, health claims seem to carry the message of increased...... healthiness, but not necessarily making the product more appealing. The wording of the claim seems to have little impact on claim perception, yet the health image of carrier products is important. From consumer-related factors the relevance and attitudes towards functional foods play a role, whereas socio......-demographic factors have only minor impact and the impact seems to be case-dependent. Familiarity with claims and functional foods increase perceived healthiness and acceptance of these products. Apparently consumers make rather rational interpretations of claims and their benefits when forced to assess...

  10. Identification of groups with poor cost-effectiveness of peginterferon plus ribavirin for naïve hepatitis C patients with a real-world cohort and database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Pei-Chien; Liu, Ta-Wei; Tsai, Yi-Shan; Ko, Yu-Min; Chen, Kuan-Yu; Lin, Ching-Chih; Huang, Ching-I; Liang, Po-Cheng; Lin, Yi-Hung; Hsieh, Ming-Yen; Hou, Nai-Jen; Huang, Chung-Feng; Yeh, Ming-Lun; Lin, Zu-Yau; Chen, Shinn-Cherng; Dai, Chia-Yen; Chuang, Wan-Long; Huang, Jee-Fu; Yu, Ming-Lung

    2017-06-01

    For decades, peginterferon and ribavirin (PegIFN/RBV) have been the standard-of-care for chronic hepatitis C virus (CHC) infection. However, the actual cost-effectiveness of this therapy remains unclear. We purposed to explore the real-world cost effectiveness for subgroups of treatment-naïve CHC patients with PegIFN/RBV therapy in a large real-world cohort using a whole population database. A total of 1809 treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients (829 HCV genotype 1 [G1] and 980 HCV G2) treated with PegIFN/RBV therapies were linked to the National Health Insurance Research Database, covering the entire population of Taiwan from 1998 to 2013 to collect the total medical-care expenses of outpatient (antiviral agents, nonantiviral agents, laboratory, and consultation costs) and inpatient (medication, logistic, laboratory, and intervention costs) visits. The costs per treatment and the cost per sustained virological response (SVR) achieved were calculated. The average medical-care cost was USD $4823 (±$2984) per treatment and $6105 (±$3778) per SVR achieved. With SVR rates of 68.6% and 87.8%, the cost/SVR was significantly higher in G1 than those in G2 patients, respectively ($8285 vs $4663, P incurred significantly higher costs per SVR than their counterparts. The cost/SVR was extremely high among patients without RVR and in patients without cEVR. We investigated the real-world cost effectiveness data for different subgroups of treatment-naïve HCV patients with PegIFN/RBV therapies, which could provide useful, informative evidence for making decisions regarding future therapeutic strategies comprising costly direct-acting antivirals.

  11. Development of a claim review and payment model utilizing diagnosis related groups under the Korean health insurance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Y S; Yeom, Y K; Hwang, H

    1993-02-01

    This paper describes the development of a claim review and payment model utilizing the diagnosis related groups (DRGs) for the fee for service-based payment system of the Korean health insurance. The present review process, which examines all claims manually on a case-by-case basis, has been considered to be inefficient, costly, and time-consuming. Differences in case mix among hospitals are controlled in the proposed model using the Korean DRGs. They were developed by modifying the US-DRG system. An empirical test of the model indicated that it can enhance the efficiency as well as the credibility and objectivity of the claim review. Furthermore, it is expected that it can contribute effectively to medical cost containments and to optimal practice pattern of hospitals by establishing a useful mechanism in monitoring the performance of hospitals. However, the performance of this model needs to be upgraded by refining the Korean DRGs which play a key role in the model.

  12. Management and cost analysis of cancer patients treated with G-CSF: a cohort study based on the French national healthcare insurance database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilleul, Patrick; Jacot, William; Emery, Corinne; Lafuma, Antoine; Gourmelen, Julie

    2017-12-01

    To describe the management and costs associated with G-CSF therapy in cancer patients in France. This study analyzed a representative random population sample from the French national healthcare insurance database, focusing on 1,612 patients with hematological or solid malignancies who were reimbursed in 2013 or 2014 for at least one G-CSF treatment dispensed in a retail pharmacy. Patient characteristics and treatment costs were analyzed according to the type of cancer. Then the costs and characteristics of patients associated with the use of different G-CSF products were analyzed in the sub-set of breast cancer patients. The most frequent malignancies in the database population were breast cancer (23.3%), hematological malignancies (22.2%), and lung cancer (12.4%). The reimbursed G-CSF was pegfilgrastim in 34.1% of cases, lenograstim in 26.7%, and filgrastim in 17.9%. More than one G-CSF product was reimbursed to 21.3% of patients. The total annual reimbursed health expenses per patient, according to the type of G-CSF, were €27,001, €24,511, and €20,802 for patients treated with filgrastim, lenograstim, and pegfilgrastim, respectively. Ambulatory care accounted for, respectively, 35%, 38%, and 41% of those costs. In patients with breast cancer, ambulatory care cost was €7,915 with filgrastim, €7,750 with lenograstim, and €6,989 with pegfilgrastim, and the respective cost of G-CSF was €1,733, €1,559, and €3,668. All available G-CSF products have been shown to be effective in cancer patients, and both daily G-CSFs and pegylated G-CSF are recommended in international guidelines. Nevertheless, this analysis of G-CSF reimbursement indicates that the choice of product can markedly affect the total cost of ambulatory care.

  13. Does a global budget superimposed on fee-for-service payments mitigate hospitals' medical claims in Taiwan?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Pi-Fem

    2014-12-01

    Taiwan's global budgeting for hospital health care, in comparison to other countries, assigns a regional budget cap for hospitals' medical benefits claimed on the basis of fee-for-service (FFS) payments. This study uses a stays-hospitals-years database comprising acute myocardial infarction inpatients to examine whether the reimbursement policy mitigates the medical benefits claimed to a third-payer party during 2000-2008. The estimated results of a nested random-effects model showed that hospitals attempted to increase their medical benefit claims under the influence of initial implementation of global budgeting. The magnitudes of hospitals' responses to global budgeting were significantly attributed to hospital ownership, accreditation status, and market competitiveness of a region. The results imply that the regional budget cap superimposed on FFS payments provides only blunt incentive to the hospitals to cooperate to contain medical resource utilization, unless a monitoring mechanism attached with the payment system.

  14. 78 FR 73451 - Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Unallowable Fringe Benefit Costs (DFARS Case...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-06

    ... contract. Penalties may be waived in accordance with FAR 42.709-5(c). 9. Exceeding the Actual Costs of... not face the possibility of False Claims Act prosecutions, Civil False Claims Act damages, qui tam... possibility of False Claims Act prosecutions, Civil False Claims Act damages, qui tam lawsuits or debarment...

  15. Analysis of large databases in vascular surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Louis L; Barshes, Neal R

    2010-09-01

    Large databases can be a rich source of clinical and administrative information on broad populations. These datasets are characterized by demographic and clinical data for over 1000 patients from multiple institutions. Since they are often collected and funded for other purposes, their use for secondary analysis increases their utility at relatively low costs. Advantages of large databases as a source include the very large numbers of available patients and their related medical information. Disadvantages include lack of detailed clinical information and absence of causal descriptions. Researchers working with large databases should also be mindful of data structure design and inherent limitations to large databases, such as treatment bias and systemic sampling errors. Withstanding these limitations, several important studies have been published in vascular care using large databases. They represent timely, "real-world" analyses of questions that may be too difficult or costly to address using prospective randomized methods. Large databases will be an increasingly important analytical resource as we focus on improving national health care efficacy in the setting of limited resources.

  16. Health care resource use and costs among patients with cushing disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swearingen, Brooke; Wu, Ning; Chen, Shih-Yin; Pulgar, Sonia; Biller, Beverly M K

    2011-01-01

    To assess health care costs associated with Cushing disease and to determine changes in overall and comorbidity-related costs after surgical treatment. In this retrospective cohort study, patients with Cushing disease were identified from insurance claims databases by International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes for Cushing syndrome (255.0) and either benign pituitary adenomas (227.3) or hypophysectomy (07.6×) between 2004 and 2008. Each patient with Cushing disease was age- and sex-matched with 4 patients with nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas and 10 population control subjects. Comorbid conditions and annual direct health care costs were assessed within each calendar year. Postoperative changes in health care costs and comorbidity-related costs were compared between patients presumed to be in remission and those with presumed persistent disease. Of 877 identified patients with Cushing disease, 79% were female and the average age was 43.4 years. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia were more common among patients with Cushing disease than in patients with nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas or in control patients (PCushing disease had significantly higher total health care costs (2008: $26 440 [Cushing disease] vs $13 708 [nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas] vs $5954 [population control], Pdisease-related costs with remission. A significant increase in postoperative health care costs was observed in those patients not in remission. Patients with Cushing disease had more comorbidities than patients with nonfunctioning pituitary adenomas or control patients and incurred significantly higher annual health care costs; these costs decreased after successful surgery and increased after unsuccessful surgery.

  17. Existing data sources for clinical epidemiology: the Danish Patient Compensation Association database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilma, Jens; Nørgaard, Mette; Mikkelsen, Kim Lyngby; Johnsen, Søren Paaske

    2015-01-01

    Any patient in the Danish health care system who experiences a treatment injury can make a compensation claim to the Danish Patient Compensation Association (DPCA) free of charge. The aim of this paper is to describe the DPCA database as a source of data for epidemiological research. Data to DPCA are collected prospectively on all claims and include information on patient factors and health records, system factors, and administrative data. Approval of claims is based on injury due to the principle of treatment below experienced specialist standard or intolerable, unexpected extensiveness of injury. Average processing time of a compensation claim is 6-8 months. Data collection is nationwide and started in 1992. The patient's central registration system number, a unique personal identifier, allows for data linkage to other registries such as the Danish National Patient Registry. The DPCA data are accessible for research following data usage permission and make it possible to analyze all claims or specific subgroups to identify predictors, outcomes, etc. DPCA data have until now been used only in few studies but could be a useful data source in future studies of health care-related injuries.

  18. Second WCB claims: who is at risk?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cherry, Nicola M; Sithole, Fortune; Beach, Jeremy R; Burstyn, Igor

    2010-01-01

    Many workers with one Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) claim make further claims. If the characteristics of the job, initial injury or worker were predictive of an early second claim, interventions at the time of return to work after the first claim might be effective in reducing the burden of work-related injury. This report explores the characteristic of those who make a second claim. Records of all Alberta WCB claims from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2004, for individuals 18 to claim, sex and age of claimant, type of injury, type of accident, occupation, industry, an indicator of company size, and industry claim rate were extracted, as well as the date of any second claim. The likelihood of second claim and mean time to second claim were estimated. Multivariate analyses were performed using Cox regression. 1,047,828 claims were identified from 490,230 individuals. Of these, 49.2% had at least two claims. In the multivariate model a reduced time to second claim was associated with male sex, younger age and some types of injury and accident. Machining trades were at highest risk of early second claim (hazard ratio [HR] 2.54 compared with administration), and of the industry sectors manufacturing was at highest risk (HR 1.37 compared with business, personal and professional services). Some caution is needed in interpreting these data as they may be affected by under-reporting and job changes between claims. Nonetheless, they suggest that there remains room for interventions to reduce the considerable differences in risk of a second claim among workers, jobs and industries.

  19. Effectiveness of influenza vaccination for children in Japan: Four-year observational study using a large-scale claims database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shibata, Natsumi; Kimura, Shinya; Hoshino, Takahiro; Takeuchi, Masato; Urushihara, Hisashi

    2018-05-11

    To date, few large-scale comparative effectiveness studies of influenza vaccination have been conducted in Japan, since marketing authorization for influenza vaccines in Japan has been granted based only on the results of seroconversion and safety in small-sized populations in clinical trial phases not on the vaccine effectiveness. We evaluated the clinical effectiveness of influenza vaccination for children aged 1-15 years in Japan throughout four influenza seasons from 2010 to 2014 in the real world setting. We conducted a cohort study using a large-scale claims database for employee health care insurance plans covering more than 3 million people, including enrollees and their dependents. Vaccination status was identified using plan records for the influenza vaccination subsidies. The effectiveness of influenza vaccination in preventing influenza and its complications was evaluated. To control confounding related to influenza vaccination, odds ratios (OR) were calculated by applying a doubly robust method using the propensity score for vaccination. Total study population throughout the four consecutive influenza seasons was over 116,000. Vaccination rate was higher in younger children and in the recent influenza seasons. Throughout the four seasons, the estimated ORs for influenza onset were statistically significant and ranged from 0.797 to 0.894 after doubly robust adjustment. On age stratification, significant ORs were observed in younger children. Additionally, ORs for influenza complication outcomes, such as pneumonia, hospitalization with influenza and respiratory tract diseases, were significantly reduced, except for hospitalization with influenza in the 2010/2011 and 2012/2013 seasons. We confirmed the clinical effectiveness of influenza vaccination in children aged 1-15 years from the 2010/2011 to 2013/2014 influenza seasons. Influenza vaccine significantly prevented the onset of influenza and was effective in reducing its secondary complications

  20. Nonparametric Fine Tuning of Mixtures: Application to Non-Life Insurance Claims Distribution Estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sardet, Laure; Patilea, Valentin

    When pricing a specific insurance premium, actuary needs to evaluate the claims cost distribution for the warranty. Traditional actuarial methods use parametric specifications to model claims distribution, like lognormal, Weibull and Pareto laws. Mixtures of such distributions allow to improve the flexibility of the parametric approach and seem to be quite well-adapted to capture the skewness, the long tails as well as the unobserved heterogeneity among the claims. In this paper, instead of looking for a finely tuned mixture with many components, we choose a parsimonious mixture modeling, typically a two or three-component mixture. Next, we use the mixture cumulative distribution function (CDF) to transform data into the unit interval where we apply a beta-kernel smoothing procedure. A bandwidth rule adapted to our methodology is proposed. Finally, the beta-kernel density estimate is back-transformed to recover an estimate of the original claims density. The beta-kernel smoothing provides an automatic fine-tuning of the parsimonious mixture and thus avoids inference in more complex mixture models with many parameters. We investigate the empirical performance of the new method in the estimation of the quantiles with simulated nonnegative data and the quantiles of the individual claims distribution in a non-life insurance application.

  1. Level of Agreement and Factors Associated With Discrepancies Between Nationwide Medical History Questionnaires and Hospital Claims Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yeon-Yong Kim

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Objectives The objectives of this study were to investigate the agreement between medical history questionnaire data and claims data and to identify the factors that were associated with discrepancies between these data types. Methods Data from self-reported questionnaires that assessed an individual’s history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, stroke, heart disease, and pulmonary tuberculosis were collected from a general health screening database for 2014. Data for these diseases were collected from a healthcare utilization claims database between 2009 and 2014. Overall agreement, sensitivity, specificity, and kappa values were calculated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with discrepancies and was adjusted for age, gender, insurance type, insurance contribution, residential area, and comorbidities. Results Agreement was highest between questionnaire data and claims data based on primary codes up to 1 year before the completion of self-reported questionnaires and was lowest for claims data based on primary and secondary codes up to 5 years before the completion of self-reported questionnaires. When comparing data based on primary codes up to 1 year before the completion of self-reported questionnaires, the overall agreement, sensitivity, specificity, and kappa values ranged from 93.2 to 98.8%, 26.2 to 84.3%, 95.7 to 99.6%, and 0.09 to 0.78, respectively. Agreement was excellent for hypertension and diabetes, fair to good for stroke and heart disease, and poor for pulmonary tuberculosis and dyslipidemia. Women, younger individuals, and employed individuals were most likely to under-report disease. Conclusions Detailed patient characteristics that had an impact on information bias were identified through the differing levels of agreement.

  2. Level of Agreement and Factors Associated With Discrepancies Between Nationwide Medical History Questionnaires and Hospital Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Yeon-Yong; Park, Jong Heon; Kang, Hee-Jin; Lee, Eun Joo; Ha, Seongjun; Shin, Soon-Ae

    2017-09-01

    The objectives of this study were to investigate the agreement between medical history questionnaire data and claims data and to identify the factors that were associated with discrepancies between these data types. Data from self-reported questionnaires that assessed an individual's history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, stroke, heart disease, and pulmonary tuberculosis were collected from a general health screening database for 2014. Data for these diseases were collected from a healthcare utilization claims database between 2009 and 2014. Overall agreement, sensitivity, specificity, and kappa values were calculated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with discrepancies and was adjusted for age, gender, insurance type, insurance contribution, residential area, and comorbidities. Agreement was highest between questionnaire data and claims data based on primary codes up to 1 year before the completion of self-reported questionnaires and was lowest for claims data based on primary and secondary codes up to 5 years before the completion of self-reported questionnaires. When comparing data based on primary codes up to 1 year before the completion of self-reported questionnaires, the overall agreement, sensitivity, specificity, and kappa values ranged from 93.2 to 98.8%, 26.2 to 84.3%, 95.7 to 99.6%, and 0.09 to 0.78, respectively. Agreement was excellent for hypertension and diabetes, fair to good for stroke and heart disease, and poor for pulmonary tuberculosis and dyslipidemia. Women, younger individuals, and employed individuals were most likely to under-report disease. Detailed patient characteristics that had an impact on information bias were identified through the differing levels of agreement.

  3. The Role of Documentation Quality in Anesthesia-Related Closed Claims: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilbanks, Bryan A; Geisz-Everson, Marjorie; Boust, Rebecca R

    2016-09-01

    Clinical documentation is a critical tool in supporting care provided to patients. Sound documentation provides a picture of clinical events that can be used to improve patient care. However, many other uses for clinical documentation are equally important. Such documentation informs clinical decision support tools, creates a legal record of patient care, assists in financial reimbursement of services, and serves as a repository for secondary data analysis. Conversely, poor documentation can impair patient safety and increase malpractice risk exposure by reflecting poor or inaccurate information that ultimately may guide patient care decisions.Through an examination of anesthesia-related closed claims, a descriptive qualitative study emerged, which explored the antecedents and consequences of documentation quality in the claims reviewed. A secondary data analysis utilized a database generated by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Foundation closed claim review team. Four major themes emerged from the analysis. Themes 1, 2, and 4 primarily describe how poor documentation quality can have negative consequences for clinicians. The third theme primarily describes how poor documentation quality that can negatively affect patient safety.

  4. Development and evaluation of a Naïve Bayesian model for coding causation of workers' compensation claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertke, S J; Meyers, A R; Wurzelbacher, S J; Bell, J; Lampl, M L; Robins, D

    2012-12-01

    Tracking and trending rates of injuries and illnesses classified as musculoskeletal disorders caused by ergonomic risk factors such as overexertion and repetitive motion (MSDs) and slips, trips, or falls (STFs) in different industry sectors is of high interest to many researchers. Unfortunately, identifying the cause of injuries and illnesses in large datasets such as workers' compensation systems often requires reading and coding the free form accident text narrative for potentially millions of records. To alleviate the need for manual coding, this paper describes and evaluates a computer auto-coding algorithm that demonstrated the ability to code millions of claims quickly and accurately by learning from a set of previously manually coded claims. The auto-coding program was able to code claims as a musculoskeletal disorders, STF or other with approximately 90% accuracy. The program developed and discussed in this paper provides an accurate and efficient method for identifying the causation of workers' compensation claims as a STF or MSD in a large database based on the unstructured text narrative and resulting injury diagnoses. The program coded thousands of claims in minutes. The method described in this paper can be used by researchers and practitioners to relieve the manual burden of reading and identifying the causation of claims as a STF or MSD. Furthermore, the method can be easily generalized to code/classify other unstructured text narratives. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  5. Workers Compensation Claim Data -

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — This data set contains DOT employee workers compensation claim data for current and past DOT employees. Types of data include claim data consisting of PII data (SSN,...

  6. 32 CFR 842.110 - Claims not payable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ...) Claims for a maritime occurrence covered under U.S. admiralty laws. (o) Claims for: (1) Any tax or... International Agreements Claims Act. (4) The Air Force Admiralty Claims Act and the Admiralty Extensions Act. (5...) Claims from the combat activities of the armed forces during war or armed conflict. (c) Claims for...

  7. The cost of inpatient death associated with acute coronary syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Page II RL

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Robert L Page II,1 Vahram Ghushchyan,2 Jill Van Den Bos,3 Travis J Gray,3 Greta L Hoetzer,4 Durgesh Bhandary,4 Kavita V Nair1 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, 2College of Business and Economics, American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia; 3Milliman, Inc, Denver, CO, 4AstraZeneca, US Medical Affairs, Wilmington, DE, USA Background: No studies have addressed the cost of inpatient mortality during an acute coronary syndrome (ACS admission. Objective: Compare ACS-related length of stay (LOS, total admission cost, and total admission cost by day of discharge/death for patients who died during an inpatient admission with a matched cohort discharged alive following an ACS-related inpatient stay. Methods: Medical and pharmacy claims (2009–2012 were used to identify admissions with a primary diagnosis of ACS from patients with at least 6 months of continuous enrollment prior to an ACS admission. Patients who died during their ACS admission (deceased cohort were matched (one-to-one to those who survived (survived cohort on age, sex, year of admission, Chronic Condition Index score, and prior revascularization. Mean LOS, total admission cost, and total admission cost by the day of discharge/death for the deceased cohort were compared with the survived cohort. A generalized linear model with log transformation was used to estimate the differences in the total expected incremental cost of an ACS admission and by the day of discharge/death between cohorts. A negative binomial model was used to estimate differences in the LOS between the two cohorts. Costs were inflated to 2013 dollars. Results: A total of 1,320 ACS claims from patients who died (n=1,320 were identified and matched to 1,319 claims from the survived patients (n=1,319. The majority were men (68% and mean age was 56.7±6.4 years. The LOS per claim for the deceased cohort was

  8. Cost-effectiveness analysis of treatments for premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rendas-Baum, Regina; Yang, Min; Gricar, Joseph; Wallenstein, Gene V

    2010-01-01

    Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is reported to affect between 13% and 31% of women. Between 3% and 8% of women are reported to meet criteria for the more severe form of PMS, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Although PMDD has received increased attention in recent years, the cost effectiveness of treatments for PMDD remains unknown. To evaluate the cost effectiveness of the four medications with a US FDA-approved indication for PMDD: fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine and drospirenone plus ethinyl estradiol (DRSP/EE). A decision-analytic model was used to evaluate both direct costs (medication and physician visits) and clinical outcomes (treatment success, failure and discontinuation). Medication costs were based on average wholesale prices of branded products; physician visit costs were obtained from a claims database study of PMDD patients and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Clinical outcome probabilities were derived from published clinical trials in PMDD. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated using the difference in costs and percentage of successfully treated patients at 6 months. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were used to assess the impact of uncertainty in parameter estimates. Threshold values where a change in the cost-effective strategy occurred were identified using a net benefit framework. Starting therapy with DRSP/EE dominated both sertraline and paroxetine, but not fluoxetine. The estimated ICER of initiating treatment with fluoxetine relative to DRSP/EE was $US4385 per treatment success (year 2007 values). Cost-effectiveness acceptability curves revealed that for ceiling ratios>or=$US3450 per treatment success, fluoxetine had the highest probability (>or=0.37) of being the most cost-effective treatment, relative to the other options. The cost-effectiveness acceptability frontier further indicated that DRSP/EE remained the option with the highest expected net monetary benefit for

  9. The cost and performance of utility commercial lighting programs. A report from the Database on Energy Efficiency Programs (DEEP) project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eto, J.; Vine, E.; Shown, L.; Sonnenblick, R.; Payne, C. [Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States). Energy and Environment Div.

    1994-05-01

    The objective of the Database on Energy Efficiency Programs (DEEP) is to document the measured cost and performance of utility-sponsored, energy-efficiency, demand-side management (DSM) programs. Consistent documentation of DSM programs is a challenging goal because of problems with data consistency, evaluation methodologies, and data reporting formats that continue to limit the usefulness and comparability of individual program results. This first DEEP report investigates the results of 20 recent commercial lighting DSM programs. The report, unlike previous reports of its kind, compares the DSM definitions and methodologies that each utility uses to compute costs and energy savings and then makes adjustments to standardize reported program results. All 20 programs were judged cost-effective when compared to avoided costs in their local areas. At an average cost of 3.9{cents}/kWh, however, utility-sponsored energy efficiency programs are not ``too cheap to meter.`` While it is generally agreed upon that utilities must take active measures to minimize the costs and rate impacts of DSM programs, the authors believe that these activities will be facilitated by industry adoption of standard definitions and reporting formats, so that the best program designs can be readily identified and adopted.

  10. Cost-benefit analysis and non-utilitarian ethics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lowry, R.J.; Peterson, M.B.

    2012-01-01

    Cost-benefit analysis is commonly understood to be intimately connected with utilitarianism and incompatible with other moral theories, particularly those that focus on deontological concepts such as rights. We reject this claim and argue that cost-benefit analysis can take moral rights as well as

  11. Global Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption Economic losses and costs from 1900-2014: 115 years of the CATDAT database - Trends, Normalisation and Visualisation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniell, James; Skapski, Jens-Udo; Vervaeck, Armand; Wenzel, Friedemann; Schaefer, Andreas

    2015-04-01

    Over the past 12 years, an in-depth database has been constructed for socio-economic losses from earthquakes and volcanoes. The effects of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been documented in many databases, however, many errors and incorrect details are often encountered. To combat this, the database was formed with socioeconomic checks of GDP, capital stock, population and other elements, as well as providing upper and lower bounds to each available event loss. The definition of economic losses within the CATDAT Damaging Earthquakes Database (Daniell et al., 2011a) as of v6.1 has now been redefined to provide three options of natural disaster loss pricing, including reconstruction cost, replacement cost and actual loss, in order to better define the impact of historical disasters. Similarly for volcanoes as for earthquakes, a reassessment has been undertaken looking at the historical net and gross capital stock and GDP at the time of the event, including the depreciated stock, in order to calculate the actual loss. A normalisation has then been undertaken using updated population, GDP and capital stock. The difference between depreciated and gross capital can be removed from the historical loss estimates which have been all calculated without taking depreciation of the building stock into account. The culmination of time series from 1900-2014 of net and gross capital stock, GDP, direct economic loss data, use of detailed studies of infrastructure age, and existing damage surveys, has allowed the first estimate of this nature. The death tolls in earthquakes from 1900-2014 are presented in various forms, showing around 2.32 million deaths due to earthquakes (with a range of 2.18 to 2.63 million) and around 59% due to masonry buildings and 28% from secondary effects. For the death tolls from the volcanic eruption database, 98000 deaths with a range from around 83000 to 107000 is seen from 1900-2014. The application of VSL life costing from death and injury

  12. IBO Claim Taking Project

    Data.gov (United States)

    Social Security Administration — IBO manually tracks all Canadian Claims and DSU claims via this report. It also provides a summary for each region and office of origin that the DSU works with. This...

  13. Medicaid Drug Claims Statistics

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Medicaid Drug Claims Statistics CD is a useful tool that conveniently breaks up Medicaid claim counts and separates them by quarter and includes an annual count.

  14. An Individual Claims History Simulation Machine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Gabrielli

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this project is to develop a stochastic simulation machine that generates individual claims histories of non-life insurance claims. This simulation machine is based on neural networks to incorporate individual claims feature information. We provide a fully calibrated stochastic scenario generator that is based on real non-life insurance data. This stochastic simulation machine allows everyone to simulate their own synthetic insurance portfolio of individual claims histories and back-test thier preferred claims reserving method.

  15. Development of a personalized training system using the Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database resource Initiative Database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Hongli; Wang, Weisheng; Luo, Jiawei; Yang, Xuedong

    2014-12-01

    The aim of this study was to develop a personalized training system using the Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC) and Image Database resource Initiative (IDRI) Database, because collecting, annotating, and marking a large number of appropriate computed tomography (CT) scans, and providing the capability of dynamically selecting suitable training cases based on the performance levels of trainees and the characteristics of cases are critical for developing a efficient training system. A novel approach is proposed to develop a personalized radiology training system for the interpretation of lung nodules in CT scans using the Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC) and Image Database Resource Initiative (IDRI) database, which provides a Content-Boosted Collaborative Filtering (CBCF) algorithm for predicting the difficulty level of each case of each trainee when selecting suitable cases to meet individual needs, and a diagnostic simulation tool to enable trainees to analyze and diagnose lung nodules with the help of an image processing tool and a nodule retrieval tool. Preliminary evaluation of the system shows that developing a personalized training system for interpretation of lung nodules is needed and useful to enhance the professional skills of trainees. The approach of developing personalized training systems using the LIDC/IDRL database is a feasible solution to the challenges of constructing specific training program in terms of cost and training efficiency. Copyright © 2014 AUR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Cost of tumor necrosis factor blockers per patient with rheumatoid arthritis in a multistate Medicaid population

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bonafede M

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Machaon Bonafede,1 George J Joseph,2 Neel Shah,2 Nicole Princic,1 David J Harrison2 1Truven Health Analytics, Cambridge, MA, 2Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, USA Background: The purpose of this study was to estimate the annual cost per treated patient for the tumor necrosis factor (TNF blockers, etanercept, adalimumab, and infliximab in rheumatoid arthritis (RA patients covered by Medicaid. Methods: The MarketScan Medicaid Multistate Database was used to identify adult RA patients who used etanercept, adalimumab, or infliximab (index agents from 2007 to 2011. The index date was the first claim preceded by 180 days and followed by 360 days of continuous enrollment. Patients with other conditions for which these agents are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration were excluded. “Continuing” patients had one or more pre-index claim for their index biologic, and "new" patients did not. Cost per treated patient was calculated in the 360 day post-index period for each index agent as the total index drug and administration cost to the payer and the costs of switched-to agents divided by the number of patients who received the index agent. Results: A total of 1,085 patients met the study criteria. Forty-eight percent received etanercept (n=521; 37% received adalimumab (n=405; and 15% received infliximab (n=159. Patient characteristics were similar across groups (mean age 47.4 years, 83% female. The annual cost per treated patient was lowest for etanercept ($18,466, followed by adalimumab ($20,983 and infliximab ($26,516. For all agents, annual costs were lower for new patients ($17,996 for etanercept, $18,992 for adalimumab, and $24,756 for infliximab than for continuing patients ($19,004 for etanercept, $24,438 for adalimumab, and $28,127 for infliximab. Conclusion: Etanercept had lower costs per treated patient than adalimumab or infliximab in both new and continuing Medicaid enrollees with RA. Keywords: cost, tumor necrosis factor

  17. Confirming the timing of phase-based costing in oncology studies: a case example in advanced melanoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkins, Michael; Coutinho, Anna D; Nunna, Sasikiran; Gupte-Singh, Komal; Eaddy, Michael

    2018-02-01

    The utilization of healthcare services and costs among patients with cancer is often estimated by the phase of care: initial, interim, or terminal. Although their durations are often set arbitrarily, we sought to establish data-driven phases of care using joinpoint regression in an advanced melanoma population as a case example. A retrospective claims database study was conducted to assess the costs of advanced melanoma from distant metastasis diagnosis to death during January 2010-September 2014. Joinpoint regression analysis was applied to identify the best-fitting points, where statistically significant changes in the trend of average monthly costs occurred. To identify the initial phase, average monthly costs were modeled from metastasis diagnosis to death; and were modeled backward from death to metastasis diagnosis for the terminal phase. Points of monthly cost trend inflection denoted ending and starting points. The months between represented the interim phase. A total of 1,671 patients with advanced melanoma who died met the eligibility criteria. Initial phase was identified as the 5-month period starting with diagnosis of metastasis, after which there was a sharp, significant decline in monthly cost trend (monthly percent change [MPC] = -13.0%; 95% CI = -16.9% to -8.8%). Terminal phase was defined as the 5-month period before death (MPC = -14.0%; 95% CI = -17.6% to -10.2%). The claims-based algorithm may under-estimate patients due to misclassifications, and may over-estimate terminal phase costs because hospital and emergency visits were used as a death proxy. Also, recently approved therapies were not included, which may under-estimate advanced melanoma costs. In this advanced melanoma population, optimal duration of the initial and terminal phases of care was 5 months immediately after diagnosis of metastasis and before death, respectively. Joinpoint regression can be used to provide data-supported phase of cancer care durations, but

  18. Using Workers' Compensation Claims Data to Characterize Occupational Injuries in the Commercial Grain Elevator Industry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramaswamy, Sai K; Mosher, Gretchen A

    2017-07-31

    Workplace injuries in the grain handling industry are common, yet little research has characterized worker injuries in grain elevators across all hazard types. Learning from past injuries is essential for preventing future occurrences, but the lack of injury information for the grain handling industry hinders this effort. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by using data from over 7000 workers' compensation claims reported from 2008 to 2016 by commercial grain handling facilities in the U.S. to characterize injury costs and severity. The total amount paid for each claim was used as a measure of injury severity. The effects of employee age and tenure, cause of injury, and body part injured on the cost of work-related injuries were investigated. Contingency tables were used to classify the variable pairs. The chi-square test and chi-square residuals were employed to evaluate the relationship between the variable pairs and identify the at-risk groups. Results showed that the employee age and tenure, cause of injury, and body part injured have a significant influence on the cost paid for the claim. Several at-risk groups were identified as a result of the analyses. Findings from the study will assist commercial grain elevators in the development of targeted safety interventions and assist grain elevator safety managers in mitigating financial and social losses from occupational injuries. Copyright© by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

  19. Impact of initiation of asenapine on patterns of utilization and cost of healthcare resources associated with the treatment of bipolar I disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chitnis, Abhishek; Wang, Rosa; Sun, Shawn X; Dixit, Shailja; Tawah, Alie; Boulanger, Luke

    2015-01-01

    To assess the impact of initiation of asenapine on "real-world" levels of utilization and cost of healthcare services for the treatment of bipolar I disorder (BPD) in the US. Using two large US healthcare claims databases that collectively included commercially insured patients aged a BPD diagnosis, plus psychiatric medications and the costs thereof (2012 dollars) were deemed 'BPD-related'. Differences in BPD-related utilization and cost of healthcare services were compared between the pre- and post-index periods. A total of 1403 patients met all selection criteria; the mean age was 42.8 years and 70.6% were women. Relative to pre-index, significant decreases were noted in post-index use of BPD-related healthcare services, most notably admissions (from 24.0% to 12.3% during the post-index period) and emergency department visits (from 4.6% to 2.6%) (both p levels of utilization of BPD-related healthcare services and costs decreased during the 6-month period immediately following initiation of asenapine therapy.

  20. Utilization and Costs of Compounded Medications for Commercially Insured Patients, 2012-2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McPherson, Timothy; Fontane, Patrick; Iyengar, Reethi; Henderson, Rochelle

    2016-02-01

    Although compounding has a long-standing tradition in clinical practice, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers have instituted policies to decrease claims for compounded medications, citing questions about their safety, efficacy, high costs, and lack of FDA approval. There are no reliable published data on the extent of compounding by community pharmacists nor on the fraction of patients who use compounded medications. Prior research suggests that compounded medications represent a relatively small proportion of prescription medications, but those surveys were limited by small sample sizes, subjective data collection methods, and low response rates. To determine the number of claims for compounded medications on a per user per year (PUPY) basis and the average ingredient cost of these claims among commercially insured patients in the United States for 2012 and 2013. This study used prescription claims data from a nationally representative sample of commercially insured members whose pharmacy benefits were managed by a large pharmacy benefit management company. A retrospective claims analysis was conducted from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2013. Annualized prevalence, cost, and utilization estimates were drawn from the data. All prescription claims were adjusted to 30-day equivalents. Data-mining techniques (association rule mining) were employed in order to identify the most commonly combined ingredients in compounded medications. The prevalence of compound users was 1.1% (245,285) of eligible members in 2012 and 1.4% (323,501) in 2013, an increase of 27.3%. Approximately 66% of compound users were female, and the average age of a compound user was approximately 42 years throughout the study period. The geographic distribution of compound user prevalence was consistent across the United States. Compound users' prescription claims increased 36.6% from 2012 to 2013, from approximately 7.1 million to approximately 9.7 million prescriptions. The number of

  1. 37 CFR 360.25 - Copies of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Section 360.25 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media Royalty Claims § 360.25 Copies of claims. A claimant shall, for each claim...

  2. 32 CFR 842.94 - Assertable claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ..., against a tort-feasor when: (a) Damage results from negligence and the claim is for: (1) More than $100... ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS Property Damage Tort Claims in Favor of the United States (31 U.S.C. 3701, 3711-3719) § 842.... (The two claims should be consolidated and processed under subpart N). (d) The Tort-feasor or his...

  3. Integration of Oracle and Hadoop: Hybrid Databases Affordable at Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canali, L.; Baranowski, Z.; Kothuri, P.

    2017-10-01

    This work reports on the activities aimed at integrating Oracle and Hadoop technologies for the use cases of CERN database services and in particular on the development of solutions for offloading data and queries from Oracle databases into Hadoop-based systems. The goal and interest of this investigation is to increase the scalability and optimize the cost/performance footprint for some of our largest Oracle databases. These concepts have been applied, among others, to build offline copies of CERN accelerator controls and logging databases. The tested solution allows to run reports on the controls data offloaded in Hadoop without affecting the critical production database, providing both performance benefits and cost reduction for the underlying infrastructure. Other use cases discussed include building hybrid database solutions with Oracle and Hadoop, offering the combined advantages of a mature relational database system with a scalable analytics engine.

  4. RANCANGAN DATABASE SUBSISTEM PRODUKSI DENGAN PENDEKATAN SEMANTIC OBJECT MODEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oviliani Yenty Yuliana

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available To compete in the global market, business performer who active in industry fields should have and get information quickly and accurately, so they could make the precise decision. Traditional cost accounting system cannot give sufficient information, so many industries shift to Activity-Based Costing system (ABC. ABC system is more complex and need more data that should be save and process, so it should be applied information technology and database than traditional cost accounting system. The development of the software technology recently makes the construction of application program is not problem again. The primary problem is how to design database that presented information quickly and accurately. For that reason it necessary to make the model first. This paper discusses database modelling with semantic object model approach. This model is easier to use and is generate more normal database design than entity relationship model approach. Abstract in Bahasa Indonesia : Dalam persaingan di pasar bebas, para pelaku bisnis di bidang industri dalam membuat suatu keputusan yang tepat memerlukan informasi secara cepat dan akurat. Sistem akuntansi biaya tradisional tidak dapat menyediakan informasi yang memadai, sehingga banyak perusahaan industri yang beralih ke sistem Activity-Based Costing (ABC. Tetapi, sistem ABC merupakan sistem yang kompleks dan memerlukan banyak data yang harus disimpan dan diolah, sehingga harus menggunakan teknologi informasi dan database. Kemajuan di bidang perangkat lunak mengakibatkan pembuatan aplikasi program bukan masalah lagi. Permasalahan utama adalah bagaimana merancang database, agar dapat menyajikan informasi secara cepat dan akurat. Untuk itu, dalam makalah ini dibahas pemodelan database dengan pendekatan semantic object model. Model data ini lebih mudah digunakan dan menghasilkan transformasi yang lebih normal, jika dibandingkan dengan entity relationship model yang umum digunakan. Kata kunci: Sub Sistem

  5. Using 'big data' to validate claims made in the pharmaceutical approval process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wasser, Thomas; Haynes, Kevin; Barron, John; Cziraky, Mark

    2015-01-01

    Big Data in the healthcare setting refers to the storage, assimilation, and analysis of large quantities of information regarding patient care. These data can be collected and stored in a wide variety of ways including electronic medical records collected at the patient bedside, or through medical records that are coded and passed to insurance companies for reimbursement. When these data are processed it is possible to validate claims as a part of the regulatory review process regarding the anticipated performance of medications and devices. In order to analyze properly claims by manufacturers and others, there is a need to express claims in terms that are testable in a timeframe that is useful and meaningful to formulary committees. Claims for the comparative benefits and costs, including budget impact, of products and devices need to be expressed in measurable terms, ideally in the context of submission or validation protocols. Claims should be either consistent with accessible Big Data or able to support observational studies where Big Data identifies target populations. Protocols should identify, in disaggregated terms, key variables that would lead to direct or proxy validation. Once these variables are identified, Big Data can be used to query massive quantities of data in the validation process. Research can be passive or active in nature. Passive, where the data are collected retrospectively; active where the researcher is prospectively looking for indicators of co-morbid conditions, side-effects or adverse events, testing these indicators to determine if claims are within desired ranges set forth by the manufacturer. Additionally, Big Data can be used to assess the effectiveness of therapy through health insurance records. This, for example, could indicate that disease or co-morbid conditions cease to be treated. Understanding the basic strengths and weaknesses of Big Data in the claim validation process provides a glimpse of the value that this research

  6. Emissions trading and transaction costs : analyzing the flaws in the discussion

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Woerdman, E.

    Although emissions trading lowers the costs of climate change mitigation, transaction costs (e.g. to find a trading partner) may reduce its cost-effectiveness. Some economists claim that transaction costs for Joint Implementation (JI) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects will be higher

  7. Estimated costs and admissible claims linked to the Prestige oil spill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loureiro, Maria L.; Ribas, Alfonso; Ojea, Elena; Lopez, Edelmiro

    2006-01-01

    The current case study presents an evaluation of the societal costs caused by the Prestige oil spill. We conclude that the economic magnitude of the catastrophe caused by the Prestige oil spill is rather significant. Short-term losses in all affected economic sectors, cleaning and recovery costs, and all environmental losses accountable at this point, add to a lower bound estimate of 770.58 million euro (prices in 2001 currency), excluding all other financial and future possible losses. Such important losses justify future studies that assess potential costs and benefits derived from the application of preventive measures and other contingency plans. (author)

  8. Treatment patterns in hyperlipidaemia patients based on administrative claim databases in Japan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wake, Mayumi; Onishi, Yoshie; Guelfucci, Florent; Oh, Akinori; Hiroi, Shinzo; Shimasaki, Yukio; Teramoto, Tamio

    2018-05-01

    Real-world evidence on treatment of hyperlipidaemia (HLD) in Japan is limited. We aimed to describe treatment patterns, persistence with, and adherence to treatment in Japanese patients with HLD. Retrospective analyses of adult HLD patients receiving drug therapy in 2014-2015 were conducted using the Japan Medical Data Center (JMDC) and Medical Data Vision (MDV) databases. Depending on their HLD treatment history, individuals were categorised as untreated (UT) or previously treated (PT), and were followed for at least 12 months. Outcomes of interest included prescribing patterns of HLD drug classes, persistence with treatment at 12 months, and adherence to treatment. Data for 49,582 and 53,865 patients from the JMDC and MDV databases, respectively, were analysed. First-line HLD prescriptions for UT patients were predominantly for moderate statins (JMDC: 75.9%, MDV: 77.0%). PT patients most commonly received combination therapy (JMDC: 43.9%, MDV: 52.6%). Approximately half of the UT patients discontinued treatment during observation. Within each cohort, persistence rates were lower in UT patients than in PT patients (JMDC: 45.0% vs. 77.5%; MDV: 51.9% vs. 85.3%). Adherence was ≥80% across almost all HLD drug classes, and was slightly lower in the JMDC cohort than MDV cohort. Most common prescriptions were moderate statins in UT patients and combination therapy in PT patients. The high discontinuation rate of HLD therapy in UT patients warrants further investigation and identification of methods to encourage and support long-term persistence. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  9. European Health Claims for Small and Medium-Sized Companies – Utopian Dream or Future Reality?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonja Brandenburger

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background: In December 2007, the European Regulation (EC 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims came into force. The European Union wanted to regulate the use of health claims on products. An online survey was carried out to evaluate the situation, particularly of small and medium-sized companies, dealing with the new regulation. Methods: The online survey on health claims was conducted with 16 enterprises. To underline the findings a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats analysis was made of the nutrition and health claims regulation regarding small and medium-sized companies in the European food and drink market. Results: The findings of this study indicated that the European Union did a step in the right direction. Most companies defined the decent competition, the simplified trade within the inner-European market, and the consumer protection as positive aspects. The biggest threat is seen in false investment conditioned by the limited research and development budgets, especially of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the cost intensive scientific evaluation to reach an authorized health claim. Conclusions: Overall, there are several strengths and opportunities speaking for SMEs and health claims in the near future. The most promising ones are the publishing of the new European Union Register of Nutrition and Health Claims and the learning effects that will occur. The biggest threat is, and will remain to be, false investment and the possible loss of a lot of money. Nevertheless, health claims for small and medium-sized enterprises will inevitably be the future to keep the European food and drink market competitive.

  10. Improving the thermal integrity of new single-family detached residential buildings: Documentation for a regional database of capital costs and space conditioning load savings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koomey, J.G.; McMahon, J.E.; Wodley, C.

    1991-07-01

    This report summarizes the costs and space-conditioning load savings from improving new single-family building shells. It relies on survey data from the National Association of Home-builders (NAHB) to assess current insulation practices for these new buildings, and NAHB cost data (aggregated to the Federal region level) to estimate the costs of improving new single-family buildings beyond current practice. Space-conditioning load savings are estimated using a database of loads for prototype buildings developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, adjusted to reflect population-weighted average weather in each of the ten federal regions and for the nation as a whole

  11. WEB-BASED DATABASE ON RENEWAL TECHNOLOGIES ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    As U.S. utilities continue to shore up their aging infrastructure, renewal needs now represent over 43% of annual expenditures compared to new construction for drinking water distribution and wastewater collection systems (Underground Construction [UC], 2016). An increased understanding of renewal options will ultimately assist drinking water utilities in reducing water loss and help wastewater utilities to address infiltration and inflow issues in a cost-effective manner. It will also help to extend the service lives of both drinking water and wastewater mains. This research effort involved collecting case studies on the use of various trenchless pipeline renewal methods and providing the information in an online searchable database. The overall objective was to further support technology transfer and information sharing regarding emerging and innovative renewal technologies for water and wastewater mains. The result of this research is a Web-based, searchable database that utility personnel can use to obtain technology performance and cost data, as well as case study references. The renewal case studies include: technologies used; the conditions under which the technology was implemented; costs; lessons learned; and utility contact information. The online database also features a data mining tool for automated review of the technologies selected and cost data. Based on a review of the case study results and industry data, several findings are presented on tren

  12. Evaluation of Electronic Healthcare Databases for Post-Marketing Drug Safety Surveillance and Pharmacoepidemiology in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yu; Zhou, Xiaofeng; Gao, Shuangqing; Lin, Hongbo; Xie, Yanming; Feng, Yuji; Huang, Kui; Zhan, Siyan

    2018-01-01

    Electronic healthcare databases (EHDs) are used increasingly for post-marketing drug safety surveillance and pharmacoepidemiology in Europe and North America. However, few studies have examined the potential of these data sources in China. Three major types of EHDs in China (i.e., a regional community-based database, a national claims database, and an electronic medical records [EMR] database) were selected for evaluation. Forty core variables were derived based on the US Mini-Sentinel (MS) Common Data Model (CDM) as well as the data features in China that would be desirable to support drug safety surveillance. An email survey of these core variables and eight general questions as well as follow-up inquiries on additional variables was conducted. These 40 core variables across the three EHDs and all variables in each EHD along with those in the US MS CDM and Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) CDM were compared for availability and labeled based on specific standards. All of the EHDs' custodians confirmed their willingness to share their databases with academic institutions after appropriate approval was obtained. The regional community-based database contained 1.19 million people in 2015 with 85% of core variables. Resampled annually nationwide, the national claims database included 5.4 million people in 2014 with 55% of core variables, and the EMR database included 3 million inpatients from 60 hospitals in 2015 with 80% of core variables. Compared with MS CDM or OMOP CDM, the proportion of variables across the three EHDs available or able to be transformed/derived from the original sources are 24-83% or 45-73%, respectively. These EHDs provide potential value to post-marketing drug safety surveillance and pharmacoepidemiology in China. Future research is warranted to assess the quality and completeness of these EHDs or additional data sources in China.

  13. Consumer attitudes and understanding of cholesterol-lowering claims on food: randomize mock-package experiments with plant sterol and oat fibre claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, C L; Mendoza, J; Henson, S J; Qi, Y; Lou, W; L'Abbé, M R

    2014-08-01

    Few studies have examined consumer acceptability or comprehension of cholesterol-lowering claims on food labels. Our objective was to assess consumer attitudes and understanding of cholesterol-lowering claims regarding plant sterols (PS) and oat fibre (OF). We conducted two studies on: (1) PS claims and (2) OF claims. Both studies involved a randomized mock-packaged experiment within an online survey administered to Canadian consumers. In the PS study (n=721), we tested three PS-related claims (disease risk reduction claim, function claim and nutrient content claim) and a 'tastes great' claim (control) on identical margarine containers. Similarly, in the OF study (n=710), we tested three claims related to OF and a 'taste great' claim on identical cereal boxes. In both studies, participants answered the same set of questions on attitudes and understanding of claims after seeing each mock package. All claims that mentioned either PS or OF resulted in more positive attitudes than the taste control claim (Pprofile. How consumers responded to the nutrition claims between the two studies was influenced by contextual factors such as familiarity with the functional food/component and the food product that carried the claim. Permitted nutrition claims are approved based on physiological evidence and are allowed on any food product as long as it meets the associated nutrient criteria. However, it is difficult to generalize attitudes and understanding of claims when they are so highly dependent on contextual factors.

  14. Tradeoffs of Using Administrative Claims and Medical Records to Identify the Use of Personalized Medicine for Patients with Breast Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Su-Ying; Phillips, Kathryn A.; Wang, Grace; Keohane, Carol; Armstrong, Joanne; Morris, William M.; Haas, Jennifer S.

    2012-01-01

    Background Administrative claims and medical records are important data sources to examine healthcare utilization and outcomes. Little is known about identifying personalized medicine technologies in these sources. Objectives To describe agreement, sensitivity, and specificity of administrative claims compared to medical records for two pairs of targeted tests and treatments for breast cancer. Research Design Retrospective analysis of medical records linked to administrative claims from a large health plan. We examined whether agreement varied by factors that facilitate tracking in claims (coding and cost) and that enhance medical record completeness (records from multiple providers). Subjects Women (35 – 65 years) with incident breast cancer diagnosed in 2006–2007 (n=775). Measures Use of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and gene expression profiling (GEP) testing, trastuzumab and adjuvant chemotherapy in claims and medical records. Results Agreement between claims and records was substantial for GEP, trastuzumab, and chemotherapy, and lowest for HER2 tests. GEP, an expensive test with unique billing codes, had higher agreement (91.6% vs. 75.2%), sensitivity (94.9% vs. 76.7%), and specificity (90.1% vs. 29.2%) than HER2, a test without unique billing codes. Trastuzumab, a treatment with unique billing codes, had slightly higher agreement (95.1% vs. 90%) and sensitivity (98.1% vs. 87.9%) than adjuvant chemotherapy. Conclusions Higher agreement and specificity were associated with services that had unique billing codes and high cost. Administrative claims may be sufficient for examining services with unique billing codes. Medical records provide better data for identifying tests lacking specific codes and for research requiring detailed clinical information. PMID:21422962

  15. Cost comparison between uterine-sparing fibroid treatments one year following treatment

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Background To compare one-year all-cause and uterine fibroid (UF)-related direct costs in patients treated with one of the following three uterine-sparing procedures: magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS), uterine artery embolization (UAE) and myomectomy. Methods This retrospective observational cohort study used healthcare claims for several million individuals with healthcare coverage from employers in the MarketScan Database for the period 2003–2010. UF patients aged 25–54 on their first UF procedure (index) date with 366-day baseline experience, 366-day follow-up period, continuous health plan enrollment during baseline and follow-up, and absence of any baseline UF procedures were included in the final sample. Cost outcomes were measured by allowed charges (sum of insurer-paid and patient-paid amounts). UF-related cost was defined as difference in mean cost between study cohorts and propensity-score-matched control cohorts without UF. Multivariate adjustment of cost outcomes was conducted using generalized linear models. Results The study sample comprised 14,426 patients (MRgFUS = 14; UAE = 4,092; myomectomy = 10,320) with a higher percent of older patients in MRgFUS cohort (71% vs. 50% vs. 12% in age-group 45–54, P UAE ($25,019; 95% CI: $23,738-$26,376) but without statistical significance. Adjusted UF-related costs were also not significantly different between the three procedures. Conclusions Adjusted all-cause and UF-related costs at one year were not significantly different between patients undergoing MRgFUS, myomectomy and UAE. PMID:25512868

  16. Determinants of consumer understanding of health claims

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grunert, Klaus G; Scholderer, Joachim; Rogeaux, Michel

    2011-01-01

    as safe, risky or other. In addition to the open questions on claim understanding, respondents rated a number of statements on claim interpretation for agreement and completed scales on interest in healthy eating, attitude to functional foods, and subjective knowledge on food and health. Results showed......The new EU regulation on nutrition and health claims states that claims can be permitted only if they can be expected to be understood by consumers. Investigating determinants of consumer understanding of health claims has therefore become an important topic. Understanding of a health claim...... on a yoghurt product was investigated with a sample of 720 category users in Germany. Health claim understanding was measured using open answers, which were subsequently content analysed and classified by comparison with the scientific dossier of the health claim. Based on this respondents were classified...

  17. 32 CFR 537.15 - Statutory authority for maritime claims and claims involving civil works of a maritime nature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Statutory authority for maritime claims and claims involving civil works of a maritime nature. 537.15 Section 537.15 National Defense Department of....15 Statutory authority for maritime claims and claims involving civil works of a maritime nature. (a...

  18. Docetaxel chemotherapy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: cost of care in Medicare and commercial populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armstrong, A; Bui, C; Fitch, K; Sawhney, T Goss; Brown, B; Flanders, S; Balk, M; Deangelis, J; Chambers, J

    2017-06-01

    To estimate the healthcare costs and characteristics of docetaxel chemotherapy episodes of care for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). This study used the Medicare 5% sample and MarketScan Commercial (2010-2013) claims data sets to identify men with mCRPC and initial episodes of docetaxel treatment. Docetaxel episodes included docetaxel claim costs from the first claim until 30 days after the last claim, with earlier termination for death, insurance disenrollment, or the end of a 24-month look-forward period from initial docetaxel index date. Docetaxel drug claim costs were adjusted for 2011 generic docetaxel introduction, while other costs were adjusted to 2015 values using the national average annual unit cost increase. This study identified 281 Medicare-insured and 155 commercially insured men, with 325 and 172 docetaxel episodes, respectively. The average number of cycles (unique docetaxel infusion days) per episode was 6.9 for Medicare and 6.3 for commercial cohorts. The average cost per episode was $28,792 for Medicare and $67,958 for commercial cohorts, with docetaxel drug costs contributing $2,588 and $13,169 per episode, respectively. The average cost per episode on docetaxel infusion days was $8,577 (30%) for Medicare and $28,412 (42%) for commercial. Non-docetaxel infusion day costs included $7,074 (25%) for infused or injected drugs for Medicare, $10,838 (16%) for commercial cohorts, and $6,875 (24%) and $9,324 (14%) for inpatient admissions, respectively. The applicability is only to the metastatic castration-resistance clinical setting, rather than the metastatic hormone-sensitive setting, and the lack of data on the cost effectiveness of different sequencing strategies of a range of systemic therapies including enzalutamide, abiraterone, radium-223, and taxane chemotherapy. The majority of docetaxel episode costs in Medicare and commercial mCRPC populations were non-docetaxel drug costs. Future research should evaluate

  19. How to Prepare an Indirect Cost Rate Proposal for a Non-profit Organization

    Science.gov (United States)

    The indirect cost rate proposal is the documentation prepared by a grantee organization, in accordance with applicable federal cost principles, to substantiate its claim for the reimbursement of indirect costs.

  20. 32 CFR 536.19 - Disaster claims planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Disaster claims planning. 536.19 Section 536.19... AGAINST THE UNITED STATES The Army Claims System § 536.19 Disaster claims planning. All ACOs will prepare... requirements related to disaster claims planning. ...

  1. Anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder and the dynamic relationship between these conditions: treatment patterns and cost analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    François, Clément; Despiégel, Nicolas; Maman, Khaled; Saragoussi, Delphine; Auquier, Pascal

    2010-03-01

    To determine the treatment pattern and impact on healthcare costs of anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (MDD), and influence of their concomitance and subsequence. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using a US reimbursement claims database. Adult patients with an incident diagnosis of anxiety or MDD (index date) were included. Their sociodemographic data, diagnoses, healthcare resource use and associated costs were collected over the 6 months preceding and 12 months following index date. A total of 599,624 patients were identified and included. Patients with phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder had the highest 12-month costs ($8,442 and $8,383, respectively). Patients with social anxiety disorder had the lowest costs ($3,772); generalized anxiety disorder ($6,472) incurred costs similar to MDD ($7,170). Costs were substantially increased with emergence of anxiety during follow-up in MDD patients ($10,031) or emergence of MDD in anxiety patients ($9,387). This was not observed in patients with both anxiety and MDD at index date ($6,148). This study confirms the high burden of costs of anxiety, which were within the same range as MDD. Interestingly, the emergence of anxiety or MDD in the year following a first diagnosis of MDD or anxiety, respectively, increased costs substantially. Major limitations were short follow-up and lack of absenteeism costs.

  2. Management of sacroiliac joint disruption and degenerative sacroiliitis with nonoperative care is medical resource-intensive and costly in a United States commercial payer population

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ackerman, Stacey J; Polly, David W; Knight, Tyler; Holt, Tim; Cummings, John

    2014-01-01

    Introduction Low back pain is common and originates in the sacroiliac (SI) joint in 15%–30% of cases. Traditional SI joint disruption/degenerative sacroiliitis treatments include nonoperative care or open SI joint fusion. To evaluate the usefulness of newly developed minimally-invasive technologies, the costs of traditional treatments must be better understood. We assessed the costs of nonoperative care for SI joint disruption to commercial payers in the United States (US). Methods A retrospective study of claim-level medical resource use and associated costs used the MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters as well as Medicare Supplemental Databases of Truven Healthcare. Patients with a primary ICD-9-CM diagnosis code for SI joint disruption (720.2, 724.6, 739.4, 846.9, or 847.3), an initial date of diagnosis from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2007 (index date), and continuous enrollment for ≥1 year before and 3 years after the index date were included. Claims attributable to SI joint disruption with a primary or secondary ICD-9-CM diagnosis code of 71x.xx, 72x.xx, 73x.xx, or 84x.xx were identified; the 3-year medical resource use-associated reimbursement and outpatient pain medication costs (measured in 2011 US dollars) were tabulated across practice settings. A subgroup analysis was performed among patients with lumbar spinal fusion. Results The mean 3-year direct, attributable medical costs were $16,196 (standard deviation [SD] $28,592) per privately-insured patient (N=78,533). Among patients with lumbar spinal fusion (N=434), attributable 3-year mean costs were $91,720 (SD $75,502) per patient compared to $15,776 (SD $27,542) per patient among patients without lumbar spinal fusion (N=78,099). Overall, inpatient hospitalizations (19.4%), hospital outpatient visits and procedures (14.0%), and outpatient pain medications (9.6%) accounted for the largest proportion of costs. The estimated 3-year insurance payments attributable to SI joint disruption

  3. 38 CFR 3.160 - Status of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ..., Compensation, and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Claims § 3.160 Status of claims. The following definitions are applicable to claims for pension, compensation, and dependency and indemnity compensation. (a... for a benefit received after final disallowance of an earlier claim, or any application based on...

  4. Health Claims Data Warehouse (HCDW)

    Data.gov (United States)

    Office of Personnel Management — The Health Claims Data Warehouse (HCDW) will receive and analyze health claims data to support management and administrative purposes. The Federal Employee Health...

  5. Endogenous Transport Costs in International Trade

    OpenAIRE

    Joern Kleinert; Julia Spies

    2011-01-01

    In this paper we claim that distance alone is a poor proxy for international transport costs in empirical studies. We model a manufacturing and a transport sector and let the level of manufacturing exports determine the demand for transport services. Above a particular trade level, transport service suppliers find it profit-maximizing to invest in an advanced transport technology, which lowers their marginal costs and as a consequence, equilibrium transport prices. Transport costs thus vary w...

  6. PEP725 Pan European Phenological Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koch, E.; Adler, S.; Lipa, W.; Ungersböck, M.; Zach-Hermann, S.

    2010-09-01

    Europe is in the fortunate situation that it has a long tradition in phenological networking: the history of collecting phenological data and using them in climatology has its starting point in 1751 when Carl von Linné outlined in his work Philosophia Botanica methods for compiling annual plant calendars of leaf opening, flowering, fruiting and leaf fall together with climatological observations "so as to show how areas differ". Recently in most European countries, phenological observations have been carried out routinely for more than 50 years by different governmental and non governmental organisations and following different observation guidelines, the data stored at different places in different formats. This has been really hampering pan European studies as one has to address many network operators to get access to the data before one can start to bring them in a uniform style. From 2004 to 2009 the COST-action 725 established a European wide data set of phenological observations. But the deliverables of this COST action was not only the common phenological database and common observation guidelines - COST725 helped to trigger a revival of some old networks and to establish new ones as for instance in Sweden. At the end of 2009 the COST action the database comprised about 8 million data in total from 15 European countries plus the data from the International Phenological Gardens IPG. In January 2010 PEP725 began its work as follow up project with funding from EUMETNET the network of European meteorological services and of ZAMG the Austrian national meteorological service. PEP725 not only will take over the part of maintaining, updating the COST725 database, but also to bring in phenological data from the time before 1951, developing better quality checking procedures and ensuring an open access to the database. An attractive webpage will make phenology and climate impacts on vegetation more visible in the public enabling a monitoring of vegetation development.

  7. 37 CFR 360.5 - Copies of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Section 360.5 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Cable Claims... hand delivery or by mail, file an original and one copy of the claim to cable royalty fees. ...

  8. Biometric Screening and Future Employer Medical Costs: Is It Worth It to Know?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanichkachorn, Greg; Marchese, Maya; Roy, Brad; Opel, Gordon

    2017-12-01

    To study the relationship between a biometric wellness data and future/actual medical costs. A relationship between total cholesterol to high density lipoprotein ratio, blood pressure, and blood glucose and medical costs, based on analysis of claims data, was explored in 1834 employees that had both wellness program biometric and claims data in 2016. Increased total cholesterol to HDL ratio is strongly associated with increased average costs (P biometric screening of full cholesterol and glucose profiles, medium-sized employers can identify high-risk employees who are expected to incur significantly higher healthcare costs, as compared with low-risk level employees, and improve treatment outcomes.

  9. 47 CFR 27.1166 - Reimbursement under the Cost-Sharing Plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Reimbursement under the Cost-Sharing Plan. 27... § 27.1166 Reimbursement under the Cost-Sharing Plan. (a) Registration of reimbursement rights. Claims for reimbursement under the cost-sharing plan are limited to relocation expenses incurred on or after...

  10. Complications and patient-injury after ankle fracture surgery. -A closed claim analysis with data from the Patient Compensation Association in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørslev, Naja; Ebskov, Lars Bo; Mersø, Camilla

    2018-01-01

    BACKGROUND: The Patient Compensation Association (PCA) receives claims for financial compensation from patients who believe they have sustained damage from their treatment in the Danish health care system. In this study, we have analysed closed claims in which patients suffered injuries due...... to the surgical treatment of their ankle fracture. We identified causalities contributing to these injuries and malpractices, as well as the economic consequences of these damages. METHODS: Fifty-one approved closed claims from the PCA database from the years 2004-2009 were analysed in a retrospective systematic...... of damages. General recommendations regarding ORIF were not followed in 21/49 of the perioperative damages. The pronation fracture was the most common. The patients received a total average compensation of 17.561 USD each. CONCLUSION: Managing the complex ankle fracture, requires considerable experience...

  11. Claim prevention at reactor facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colby, B.P.

    1987-01-01

    Why does a radiation worker bring a claim alleging bodily injury from radiation exposure? Natural cancer, fear of radiation induced cancer, financial gain, emotional distress and mental anguish are some reasons for workers' claims. In this paper the author describes what power reactor health physicists are doing to reduce the likelihood of claims by establishing programs which provide sound protection of workers, prevent radiological events, improve workers' knowledge of radiological conditions and provide guidance for radiological incident response

  12. 40 CFR 35.6600 - Contractor claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Contractor claims. 35.6600 Section 35... Actions Procurement Requirements Under A Cooperative Agreement § 35.6600 Contractor claims. (a) General... prepared by the contractor to support a claim against the recipient; and (4) The award official determines...

  13. Variation in Medicare Expenditures for Treating Perioperative Complications: The Cost of Rescue.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pradarelli, Jason C; Healy, Mark A; Osborne, Nicholas H; Ghaferi, Amir A; Dimick, Justin B; Nathan, Hari

    2016-12-21

    Treating surgical complications presents a major challenge for hospitals striving to deliver high-quality care while reducing costs. Costs associated with rescuing patients from perioperative complications are poorly characterized. To evaluate differences across hospitals in the costs of care for patients surviving perioperative complications after major inpatient surgery. Retrospective cohort study using claims data from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review files. We compared payments for patients who died vs patients who survived after perioperative complications occurred. Hospitals were stratified using average payments for patients who survived following complications, and payment components were analyzed across hospitals. Administrative claims database of surgical patients was analyzed at hospitals treating Medicare patients nationwide. This study included Medicare patients aged 65 to 100 years who underwent abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (n = 69 207), colectomy for cancer (n = 107 647), pulmonary resection (n = 91 758), and total hip replacement (n = 307 399) between 2009 and 2012. Data analysis took place between November 2015 and March 2016. Clinical outcome of surgery (eg, no complication, complication and death, or complication and survival) and the individual hospital where a patient received an operation. Risk-adjusted, price-standardized Medicare payments for an episode of surgery. Risk-adjusted perioperative outcomes were also assessed. The mean age for Medicare beneficiaries in this study ranged from 74.1 years (pulmonary resection) to 78.2 years (colectomy). The proportion of male patients ranged from 37% (total hip replacement) to 77% (abdominal aortic aneurysm repair), and most patients were white. Among patients who experienced complications, those who were rescued had higher price-standardized Medicare payments than did those who died for all 4 operations. Assessing variation across hospitals, payments for patients

  14. 31 CFR 361.8 - Claim for replacement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Claim for replacement. 361.8 Section... § 361.8 Claim for replacement. Claim for replacement shall be made in writing to the Secretary, to the..., Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328. The claim, accompanied by a recommendation regarding the manner of replacement...

  15. Reserving by detailed conditioning on individual claim

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kartikasari, Mujiati Dwi; Effendie, Adhitya Ronnie; Wilandari, Yuciana

    2017-03-01

    The estimation of claim reserves is an important activity in insurance companies to fulfill their liabilities. Recently, reserving method of individual claim have attracted a lot of interest in the actuarial science, which overcome some deficiency of aggregated claim method. This paper explores the Reserving by Detailed Conditioning (RDC) method using all of claim information for reserving with individual claim of liability insurance from an Indonesian general insurance company. Furthermore, we compare it to Chain Ladder and Bornhuetter-Ferguson method.

  16. 32 CFR 842.43 - Filing a claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... completed Standard Form 95 or other signed and written demand for money damages in a sum certain. A claim... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE CLAIMS AND LITIGATION ADMINISTRATIVE... amend a claim at any time prior to final action. To amend a claim, the claimant or his or her authorized...

  17. Five-year examination of utilization and drug cost outcomes associated with benefit design changes including reference pricing for proton pump inhibitors in a state employee health plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Jill T; Neill, Kathryn K; Davis, Dwight A

    2011-04-01

    The Arkansas State Employee Benefits Division (EBD) is a self-insured program comprising public school and other state employees, their spouses, and dependents. Previous research published in JMCP (2006) showed drug cost savings of $2.20 per member per month (PMPM; 37.6%) or annualized savings of $3.4 million associated with a benefit design change and coverage of the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) omeprazole over-the-counter (OTC) beginning in March 2004. On May 1, 2005, brand esomeprazole was excluded from coverage, with current users grandfathered for 4 months until September 2005. Reference pricing for PPIs, including esomeprazole but excluding generic omeprazole, was implemented on September 1, 2005, and the beneficiary cost share for all PPIs except generic omeprazole was determined from comparison of the PPI actual price to the $0.90 omeprazole OTC reference price per unit. To examine PPI utilization and drug costs before and after (a) excluding esomeprazole from coverage (with grandfathering current users) and (b) implementing a therapeutic maximum allowable cost (TMAC), or reference-pricing benefit design, for the PPI class in a large state employee health plan with fairly stable enrollment of approximately 127,500 members in 2005 through 2008 and approximately 128,000 members in 2009 Q1. The pharmacy claims database for the EBD was used to examine utilization and cost data for PPIs in a longitudinal analysis for the 61-month period from March 1, 2004, through March 31, 2009. Pharmacy claims data were compared for the period 14 months prior to esomeprazole exclusion (preperiod), 4 months during the esomeprazole exclusion (postperiod 1), and the ensuing 43 months of PPI reference pricing (postperiod 2). PPI cost and utilization data for the intervention group of approximately 127,500 beneficiaries were compared with a group of 122 self-insured employers with a total of nearly 1 million beneficiaries whose pharmacy benefits did not include reference pricing for

  18. Survey of malpractice claims in dermatology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Altman, J.

    1975-01-01

    A statistical survey of malpractice claims asserted against dermatologists was made. The subject matter of the claims was divided into eight major categories: drug reactions, x-ray burns, poor cosmetic result following surgery, poor cosmetic result following medication, failure to diagnose cancer, improper diagnosis, infection from treatment, and miscellaneous. The study showed that a group of ''serious'' damage cases, which accounted for 34 percent of total claims, generated 94 percent of total dollar losses. The problem areas for malpractice claims appeared to be drug reactions, cosmetic chemosurgery, and failure to diagnose cancer. (U.S.)

  19. 37 CFR 7.12 - Claim of color.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 37 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Claim of color. 7.12 Section... § 7.12 Claim of color. (a) If color is claimed as a feature of the mark in the basic application and/or registration, the international application must include a statement that color is claimed as a...

  20. A New Reversible Database Watermarking Approach with Firefly Optimization Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mustafa Bilgehan Imamoglu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Up-to-date information is crucial in many fields such as medicine, science, and stock market, where data should be distributed to clients from a centralized database. Shared databases are usually stored in data centers where they are distributed over insecure public access network, the Internet. Sharing may result in a number of problems such as unauthorized copies, alteration of data, and distribution to unauthorized people for reuse. Researchers proposed using watermarking to prevent problems and claim digital rights. Many methods are proposed recently to watermark databases to protect digital rights of owners. Particularly, optimization based watermarking techniques draw attention, which results in lower distortion and improved watermark capacity. Difference expansion watermarking (DEW with Firefly Algorithm (FFA, a bioinspired optimization technique, is proposed to embed watermark into relational databases in this work. Best attribute values to yield lower distortion and increased watermark capacity are selected efficiently by the FFA. Experimental results indicate that FFA has reduced complexity and results in less distortion and improved watermark capacity compared to similar works reported in the literature.

  1. Chiropractic claims in the English-speaking world.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ernst, Edzard; Gilbey, Andrew

    2010-04-09

    Some chiropractors and their associations claim that chiropractic is effective for conditions that lack sound supporting evidence or scientific rationale. This study therefore sought to determine the frequency of World Wide Web claims of chiropractors and their associations to treat, asthma, headache/migraine, infant colic, colic, ear infection/earache/otitis media, neck pain, whiplash (not supported by sound evidence), and lower back pain (supported by some evidence). A review of 200 chiropractor websites and 9 chiropractic associations' World Wide Web claims in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States was conducted between 1 October 2008 and 26 November 2008. The outcome measure was claims (either direct or indirect) regarding the eight reviewed conditions, made in the context of chiropractic treatment. We found evidence that 190 (95%) chiropractor websites made unsubstantiated claims regarding at least one of the conditions. When colic and infant colic data were collapsed into one heading, there was evidence that 76 (38%) chiropractor websites made unsubstantiated claims about all the conditions not supported by sound evidence. Fifty-six (28%) websites and 4 of the 9 (44%) associations made claims about lower back pain, whereas 179 (90%) websites and all 9 associations made unsubstantiated claims about headache/migraine. Unsubstantiated claims were made about asthma, ear infection/earache/otitis media, neck pain, The majority of chiropractors and their associations in the English-speaking world seem to make therapeutic claims that are not supported by sound evidence, whilst only 28% of chiropractor websites promote lower back pain, which is supported by some evidence. We suggest the ubiquity of the unsubstantiated claims constitutes an ethical and public health issue.

  2. 12 CFR 627.2750 - Priority of claims-banks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ...) All claims for taxes. (f) All claims of creditors which are secured by specific assets or equities of... accordance with priorities of applicable Federal or State law. (g) All claims of holders of bonds issued by... claims of holders of consolidated and System-wide bonds and all claims of the other Farm Credit banks...

  3. Use and costs of prescription medications and alternative treatments in patients with osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain in community-based settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gore, Mugdha; Tai, Kei-Sing; Sadosky, Alesia; Leslie, Douglas; Stacey, Brett R

    2012-09-01

    To evaluate the use and direct medical costs of pharmacologic and alternative treatments for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and chronic low back pain (CLBP). The LifeLink™ Health Plan Claims Database was used to identify patients ≥18 years old, diagnosed with OA (N = 112,951) or CLBP (N = 101,294). Of these patients, 64,085 with OA and 47,386 with CLBP received pain-related treatments during CY2008 and were selected for inclusion. For patients in both cohorts, pharmacologic and alternative treatments, and direct medical costs were examined during CY2008. Opioids were the most frequently prescribed medication (>70%) in both groups, followed by nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (>50%). Over 30% received antidepressants, >20% received benzodiazepines, and 15% in each group received sedative hypnotics. Use of alternative treatments was as follows: chiropractor, OA 11%, CLBP 34%; physical therapy, 20% in both groups; transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulations (TENS), OA 14%, CLBP 22%; acupuncture, hydrotherapy, massage therapy, and biofeedback, patients were, OA: $15,638 ($22,595); CLBP: $11,829 ($20,035). Pharmacologic therapies accounted for approximately 20% of these costs, whereas alternative treatments accounted for only 3% to 4% of the total costs. Patients with OA and CLBP used a variety of pain-related and adjunctive medications. Although, alternative treatments are widely recommended, we found limited use of several of these in clinical practice, potentially due to the source of our data (commercial claims). Further research is needed to ascertain the extent to which such therapies contribute to the total costs of OA and CLBP management. © 2012 The Authors. Pain Practice © 2012 World Institute of Pain.

  4. Examples of use of the database

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gillemot, F [Atomic Energy Research Inst., Budapest (Hungary); Davies, L M [Davies Consultants, Oxford (United Kingdom)

    1997-09-01

    Databases on ageing are generally used for elaboration of trend curves, and development of new steel types. Moreover they can be used for enhancing PTS evaluations. By more detailed PTS evaluation the calculated lifetime will be longer and resulting in the utilities being able to decrease the cost of life management efforts. The paper introduces three examples of database use related to PTS evaluation. (author). 4 refs, 8 figs, 1 tab.

  5. Characteristics of claims in the management of septic arthritis in Japan: Retrospective analyses of judicial precedents and closed claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Otaki, Yasuhiro; DaSilva, Makiko Ishida; Saito, Yuichi; Oyama, Yasuaki; Oiso, Giichiro; Yoshida, Tomohiko; Fukuhara, Masakazu; Moriyama, Mitsuru

    2018-03-01

    Septic arthritis (SA) cases can result in claims or litigation because of poor prognosis even if it is unavoidable. Although these claims or litigation are useful for understanding causes and background factors of medical errors, the characteristics of malpractice claims associated with SA remain undetermined in Japan. This study aimed to increase our understanding of malpractice claims in the clinical management of SA. We analyzed 6 civil precedents and 16 closed claims of SA from 8530 malpractice claims processed between July 2004 and June 2014 by the Tokyo office of Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, Incorporated. We also studied 5 accident and 21 incident reports of SA based on project data compiled by the Japan Council for Quality Health Care. The rate of negligence was 83.3% in the precedents and 75.0% in closed claims. Two main malpractice claim patterns were revealed: SA in a lower extremity joint following sepsis caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in newborns and SA in an injection site following joint injection. These two patterns accounted for 83.3% and 56.3% of judicial cases and closed claim cases, respectively. Breakdowns in care process of accident and incident reports were clearly differentiated from judicial cases or closed claim cases (Fisher's exact test, p < 0.001). It is important to pay particular attention to SA following sepsis in newborns and to monitor for any signs of SA after joint injection to ensure early diagnosis. Analysis of both malpractice claims and accident and incident reports is essential to ensure a full understanding of the situation in Japan. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.

  6. What can we learn from patient claims? - A retrospective analysis of incidence and patterns of adverse events after orthopaedic procedures in Sweden

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Öhrn Annica

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Objective data on the incidence and pattern of adverse events after orthopaedic surgical procedures remain scarce, secondary to the reluctance for encompassing reporting of surgical complications. The aim of this study was to analyze the nature of adverse events after orthopaedic surgery reported to a national database for patient claims in Sweden. Methods In this retrospective review data from two Swedish national databases during a 4-year period were analyzed. We used the "County Councils' Mutual Insurance Company", a national no-fault insurance system for patient claims, and the "National Patient Register at the National Board of Health and Welfare". Results A total of 6,029 patient claims filed after orthopaedic surgery were assessed during the study period. Of those, 3,336 (55% were determined to be adverse events, which received financial compensation. Hospital-acquired infections and sepsis were the most common causes of adverse events (n = 741; 22%. The surgical procedure that caused the highest rate of adverse events was "decompression of spinal cord and nerve roots" (code ABC**, with 168 adverse events of 17,507 hospitals discharges (1%. One in five (36 of 168; 21.4% injured patient was seriously disabled or died. Conclusions We conclude that patients undergoing spinal surgery run the highest risk of being severely injured and that these patients also experienced a high degree of serious disability. The most common adverse event was related to hospital acquired infections. Claims data obtained in a no-fault system have a high potential for identifying adverse events and learning from them.

  7. Nutrition labelling, marketing techniques, nutrition claims and health claims on chip and biscuit packages from sixteen countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayhew, Alexandra J; Lock, Karen; Kelishadi, Roya; Swaminathan, Sumathi; Marcilio, Claudia S; Iqbal, Romaina; Dehghan, Mahshid; Yusuf, Salim; Chow, Clara K

    2016-04-01

    Food packages were objectively assessed to explore differences in nutrition labelling, selected promotional marketing techniques and health and nutrition claims between countries, in comparison to national regulations. Cross-sectional. Chip and sweet biscuit packages were collected from sixteen countries at different levels of economic development in the EPOCH (Environmental Profile of a Community's Health) study between 2008 and 2010. Seven hundred and thirty-seven food packages were systematically evaluated for nutrition labelling, selected promotional marketing techniques relevant to nutrition and health, and health and nutrition claims. We compared pack labelling in countries with labelling regulations, with voluntary regulations and no regulations. Overall 86 % of the packages had nutrition labels, 30 % had health or nutrition claims and 87 % displayed selected marketing techniques. On average, each package displayed two marketing techniques and one health or nutrition claim. In countries with mandatory nutrition labelling a greater proportion of packages displayed nutrition labels, had more of the seven required nutrients present, more total nutrients listed and higher readability compared with those with voluntary or no regulations. Countries with no health or nutrition claim regulations had fewer claims per package compared with countries with regulations. Nutrition label regulations were associated with increased prevalence and quality of nutrition labels. Health and nutrition claim regulations were unexpectedly associated with increased use of claims, suggesting that current regulations may not have the desired effect of protecting consumers. Of concern, lack of regulation was associated with increased promotional marketing techniques directed at children and misleadingly promoting broad concepts of health.

  8. A reply to “Historical construction costs of global nuclear power reactors”

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koomey, Jonathan; Hultman, Nathan E.; Grubler, Arnulf

    2017-01-01

    present data on the overnight costs of more than half of nuclear reactors built worldwide since the beginning of the nuclear age. The authors claim that this consolidated data set offers more accurate insights than previous country-level assessments. Unfortunately, the authors make analytical choices that mask nuclear power's real construction costs, cherry pick data, and include misleading data on early experimental and demonstration reactors. For those reasons, serious students of such issues should look elsewhere for guidance about understanding the true costs of nuclear power. - Highlights: • claim to accurately assess nuclear plant costs over time. • The authors err by relying on overnight costs, which exclude interest. • The authors cherry pick data (e.g, ignoring problems with French nuclear data). • The article's cherry picked data don’t even support the article's own conclusions. • Lovering et al. is not a reliable source for costs of nuclear power.

  9. 27 CFR 72.23 - Type and conditions of cost bond.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... PROPERTY Seizures and Forfeitures § 72.23 Type and conditions of cost bond. The cost bond delivered by a claimant to effect removal of the forfeiture status of the property or carrier claimed to the jurisdiction... individual sureties the claimant may deposit collateral as provided in § 72.25. The cost bond shall be...

  10. 76 FR 36176 - Fully Developed Claim (Fully Developed Claims-Applications for Compensation, Pension, DIC, Death...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-06-21

    ... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS [OMB Control No. 2900-0747] Fully Developed Claim (Fully Developed Claims--Applications for Compensation, Pension, DIC, Death Pension, and/or Accrued Benefits); Correction AGENCY: Veterans Benefits Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. ACTION: Notice; correction...

  11. Claims-based studies of oral glucose-lowering medications can achieve balance in critical clinical variables only observed in electronic health records.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patorno, Elisabetta; Gopalakrishnan, Chandrasekar; Franklin, Jessica M; Brodovicz, Kimberly G; Masso-Gonzalez, Elvira; Bartels, Dorothee B; Liu, Jun; Schneeweiss, Sebastian

    2018-04-01

    To evaluate the extent to which balance in unmeasured characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) was achieved in claims data, by comparing against more detailed information from linked electronic health records (EHR) data. Within a large US commercial insurance database and using a cohort design, we identified patients with T2DM initiating linagliptin or a comparator agent within class (ie, another dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor) or outside class (ie, pioglitazone or a sulphonylurea) between May 2011 and December 2012. We focused on comparators used at a similar stage of diabetes to linagliptin. For each comparison, 1:1 propensity score (PS) matching was used to balance >100 baseline claims-based characteristics, including proxies of diabetes severity and duration. Additional clinical data from EHR were available for a subset of patients. We assessed representativeness of the claims-EHR-linked subset, evaluated the balance of claims- and EHR-based covariates before and after PS-matching via standardized differences (SDs), and quantified the potential bias associated with observed imbalances. From a claims-based study population of 166 613 patients with T2DM, 7219 (4.3%) patients were linked to their EHR data. Claims-based characteristics in the EHR-linked and EHR-unlinked patients were similar (SD balance of claims-based and EHR-based patient characteristics appeared to be reasonable before PS-matching and generally improved in the PS-matched population, to be SD balance in covariates typically unmeasured in administrative claims datasets, to the extent that residual confounding is unlikely. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Nuclear data processing using a database management system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Castilla, V.; Gonzalez, L.

    1991-01-01

    A database management system that permits the design of relational models was used to create an integrated database with experimental and evaluated nuclear data.A system that reduces the time and cost of processing was created for computers type EC or compatibles.A set of programs for the conversion from nuclear calculated data output format to EXFOR format was developed.A dictionary to perform a retrospective search in the ENDF database was created too

  13. Nature of Medical Malpractice Claims Against Radiation Oncologists

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Marshall, Deborah; Tringale, Kathryn [Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California (United States); Connor, Michael [Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California (United States); University of California Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, California (United States); Punglia, Rinaa [Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Recht, Abram [Department of Radiation Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Hattangadi-Gluth, Jona, E-mail: jhattangadi@ucsd.edu [Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California (United States)

    2017-05-01

    Purpose: To examine characteristics of medical malpractice claims involving radiation oncologists closed during a 10-year period. Methods and Materials: Malpractice claims filed against radiation oncologists from 2003 to 2012 collected by a nationwide liability insurance trade association were analyzed. Outcomes included the nature of claims and indemnity payments, including associated presenting diagnoses, procedures, alleged medical errors, and injury severity. We compared the likelihood of a claim resulting in payment in relation to injury severity categories (death as referent) using binomial logistic regression. Results: There were 362 closed claims involving radiation oncology, 102 (28%) of which were paid, resulting in $38 million in indemnity payments. The most common alleged errors included “improper performance” (38% of closed claims, 18% were paid; 29% [$11 million] of total indemnity), “errors in diagnosis” (25% of closed claims, 46% were paid; 44% [$17 million] of total indemnity), and “no medical misadventure” (14% of closed claims, 8% were paid; less than 1% [$148,000] of total indemnity). Another physician was named in 32% of claims, and consent issues/breach of contract were cited in 18%. Claims for injury resulting in death represented 39% of closed claims and 25% of total indemnity. “Improper performance” was the primary alleged error associated with injury resulting in death. Compared with claims involving death, major temporary injury (odds ratio [OR] 2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29-5.85, P=.009), significant permanent injury (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.48-6.46, P=.003), and major permanent injury (OR 5.5, 95% CI 1.89-16.15, P=.002) had a higher likelihood of a claim resulting in indemnity payment. Conclusions: Improper performance was the most common alleged malpractice error. Claims involving significant or major injury were more likely to be paid than those involving death. Insights into the nature of liability claims against

  14. Global Warming: Claims, Science, and Consequences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gould, Laurence I.

    2007-04-01

    Widespread (and seemingly dominant) claims about the dire consequences of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have been propagated by both scientists and politicians and have been prominently featured by much of the mass media. This talk will examine some of those claims --- such as those made in the popular pro-AGW film, An Inconvenient Truth^1 --- from the perspectives of science^2 and scientific methodology^3. Some of the issues considered will be: What are the major ``greenhouse gases''? To what extent is global warming a result of human influences through an increase of ``greenhouse gases''? Is an increase in (1) global temperature and (2) carbon dioxide bad/good? What are some meanings that can be given to the term ``consensus'' in science? What are the estimated financial and other costs of governments implementing the Kyoto accords? Links to readings and videos will be given at the conclusion of the talk. ^1Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It -- (Rodale Press, May, 2006). ^2Marlo Lewis, ``A Skeptic's Guide to An Inconvenient Truth'' http://www.cei.org/pages/aitresponse-book.cfm ^3Aaron Wildavsky, But Is It True? A Citizen's Guide to Environmental Health and Safety Issues (Harvard University Press, 1995), Intro. and Chap. 11. To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2007.NES07.C1.6

  15. Budget Impact Analysis to Estimate the Cost Dynamics of Treating Refractory Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease With Radiofrequency Energy: a Payer Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregory, David; Scotti, Dennis J; Buck, Daniel; Triadafilopoulos, George

    2016-05-01

    A minimally invasive endoscopic treatment that utilizes radio-frequency energy (RFE) has received increased attention as an appropriate middle-ground approach in the treatment of refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and as an alternative to complicated and invasive surgical procedures. The objective of this study was to develop a longitudinal budget impact analysis from the payer perspective to estimate the direct medical costs of treatment for the refractory GERD patient population and to estimate the budgetary impact of further extending the RFE treatment option to other target populations. A retrospective analysis of claims designed to assess the longitudinal costs and budget impact on payer expenditures associated with managing and treating GERD surgically (Nissen fundoplication [NF]), endoscopically (RFE), or medically was performed. Both Medicare and commercially insured claims databases were interrogated for such population-level analyses. At current adoption rates (less than 1% of procedures), RFE demonstrated overall cost savings ranging from 7.3% to 50.5% in the 12-month time period following the index procedure (inclusive of procedure costs) when compared to medical management and fundoplication across the commercial and Medicare patient populations. Increasing the total number of RFE procedures to 2% of total cases performed generated per-member, per-month (PMPM) savings of $0.28 in the Medicare population and $0.37 in the commercially insured population. Further increases yielded higher PMPM savings. Adding to the clinical importance of RFE in filling the gap between medical and surgical management, this economic analysis demonstrates to payers that the adoption of RFE can create notable savings to their plans when compared to surgery or medical management.

  16. 32 CFR 842.95 - Non-assertable claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS Property Damage Tort Claims in Favor of the United States (31 U.S.C. 3701, 3711-3719) § 842...) Reimbursement for military or civilian employees for their negligence claims paid by the United States. (b) Loss...

  17. SmallSat Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petropulos, Dolores; Bittner, David; Murawski, Robert; Golden, Bert

    2015-01-01

    The SmallSat has an unrealized potential in both the private industry and in the federal government. Currently over 70 companies, 50 universities and 17 governmental agencies are involved in SmallSat research and development. In 1994, the U.S. Army Missile and Defense mapped the moon using smallSat imagery. Since then Smart Phones have introduced this imagery to the people of the world as diverse industries watched this trend. The deployment cost of smallSats is also greatly reduced compared to traditional satellites due to the fact that multiple units can be deployed in a single mission. Imaging payloads have become more sophisticated, smaller and lighter. In addition, the growth of small technology obtained from private industries has led to the more widespread use of smallSats. This includes greater revisit rates in imagery, significantly lower costs, the ability to update technology more frequently and the ability to decrease vulnerability of enemy attacks. The popularity of smallSats show a changing mentality in this fast paced world of tomorrow. What impact has this created on the NASA communication networks now and in future years? In this project, we are developing the SmallSat Relational Database which can support a simulation of smallSats within the NASA SCaN Compatability Environment for Networks and Integrated Communications (SCENIC) Modeling and Simulation Lab. The NASA Space Communications and Networks (SCaN) Program can use this modeling to project required network support needs in the next 10 to 15 years. The SmallSat Rational Database could model smallSats just as the other SCaN databases model the more traditional larger satellites, with a few exceptions. One being that the smallSat Database is designed to be built-to-order. The SmallSat database holds various hardware configurations that can be used to model a smallSat. It will require significant effort to develop as the research material can only be populated by hand to obtain the unique data

  18. 37 CFR 360.12 - Form and content of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Satellite Claims § 360.12 Form and content of claims. (a) Forms. (1) Each claim to compulsory license royalty fees... owner entitled to claim the royalty fees. (ii) A general statement of the nature of the copyright owner...

  19. 37 CFR 360.3 - Form and content of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Cable Claims § 360.3 Form and content of claims. (a) Forms. (1) Each claim to cable compulsory license royalty fees... copyright owner entitled to claim the royalty fees. (ii) A general statement of the nature of the copyright...

  20. Electronic Health Record-Related Events in Medical Malpractice Claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graber, Mark L; Siegal, Dana; Riah, Heather; Johnston, Doug; Kenyon, Kathy

    2015-11-06

    There is widespread agreement that the full potential of health information technology (health IT) has not yet been realized and of particular concern are the examples of unintended consequences of health IT that detract from the safety of health care or from the use of health IT itself. The goal of this project was to obtain additional information on these health IT-related problems, using a mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) analysis of electronic health record-related harm in cases submitted to a large database of malpractice suits and claims. Cases submitted to the CRICO claims database and coded during 2012 and 2013 were analyzed. A total of 248 cases (<1%) involving health IT were identified and coded using a proprietary taxonomy that identifies user- and system-related sociotechnical factors. Ambulatory care accounted for most of the cases (146 cases). Cases were most typically filed as a result of an error involving medications (31%), diagnosis (28%), or a complication of treatment (31%). More than 80% of cases involved moderate or severe harm, although lethal cases were less likely in cases from ambulatory settings. Etiologic factors spanned all of the sociotechnical dimensions, and many recurring patterns of error were identified. Adverse events associated with health IT vulnerabilities can cause extensive harm and are encountered across the continuum of health care settings and sociotechnical factors. The recurring patterns provide valuable lessons that both practicing clinicians and health IT developers could use to reduce the risk of harm in the future. The likelihood of harm seems to relate more to a patient's particular situation than to any one class of error.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share thework provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used

  1. The Cost-Effectiveness of Treatment Modalities for Ureteral Stones

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Justin Ji-Yuen Siu MD

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Additional intervention and medical treatment of complications may follow the primary treatment of a ureteral stone. We investigated the cost of the treatment of ureteral stone(s within 45 days after initial intervention by means of retrospective analysis of the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. All patients of ages ≥20 years diagnosed with ureteral stone(s( International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification/ICD-9-CM: 592.1 from January 2001 to December 2011 were enrolled. We included a comorbidity code only if the diagnosis appeared in at least 2 separate claims in a patient’s record. Treatment modalities (code included extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (SWL; 98.51, ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URSL; 56.31, percutaneous nephrolithotripsy (PNL; 55.04, (open ureterolithotomy (56.20, and laparoscopy (ie, laparoscopic ureterolithotomy; 54.21. There were 28 513 patients with ureteral stones (13 848 men and 14 665 women in the randomized sample of 1 million patients. The mean cost was 526.4 ± 724.1 United States Dollar (USD. The costs of treatment were significantly increased in patients with comorbidities. The costs of treatment among each primary treatment modalities were 1212.2 ± 627.3, 1146.7 ± 816.8, 2507.4 ± 1333.5, 1533.3 ± 1137.1, 2566.4 ± 2594.3, and 209.8 ± 473.2 USD in the SWL, URSL, PNL, (open ureterolithotomy, laparoscopy (laparoscopic ureterolithotomy, and conservative treatment group, respectively. In conclusion, URSL was more cost-effective than SWL and PNL as a primary treatment modality for ureteral stone(s when the possible additional costs within 45 days after the initial operation were included in the calculation.

  2. Clinical negligence in foot and ankle surgery: A 17-year review of claims to the NHS Litigation Authority.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ring, J; Talbot, C L; Clough, T M

    2014-11-01

    We present a review of litigation claims relating to foot and ankle surgery in the NHS in England during the 17-year period between 1995 and 2012. A freedom of information request was made to obtain data from the NHS litigation authority (NHSLA) relating to orthopaedic claims, and the foot and ankle claims were reviewed. During this period of time, a total of 10 273 orthopaedic claims were made, of which 1294 (12.6%) were related to the foot and ankle. 1036 were closed, which comprised of 1104 specific complaints. Analysis was performed using the complaints as the denominator. The cost of settling these claims was more than £36 million. There were 372 complaints (33.7%) involving the ankle, of which 273 (73.4%) were related to trauma. Conditions affecting the first ray accounted for 236 (21.4%), of which 232 (98.3%) concerned elective practice. Overall, claims due to diagnostic errors accounted for 210 (19.0%) complaints, 208 (18.8%) from alleged incompetent surgery and 149 (13.5%) from alleged mismanagement. Our findings show that the incorrect, delayed or missed diagnosis of conditions affecting the foot and ankle is a key area for improvement, especially in trauma practice. ©2014 The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery.

  3. Gender Disparities in Ghana National Health Insurance Claims: An Econometric Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel Antwi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to find out the gender disparities in Ghana national health insurance claims. In this work, data was collected from the policyholders of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme with the help of the National Health Insurance database and the patients’ attendance register of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, from 1st January to 31st December 2011. The generalized linear regression (GLR models and the SPSS version 17.0 were used for the analysis. Among men, the younger people prefer attending hospital for treatment as compared to their adult counterparts. In contrast to women, younger women favor attending hospital for treatment as compared to their adult counterparts. Among men, various levels of income impact greatly on their propensity to make an insurance claim, whereas among women only the highest income level did as compared to lowest income level.Men, who completed senior high school education, were less likely to make an insurance claim as compared to their counterparts with basic or no education. However it was women who had basic education that preferred using the hospital as compared to their more educated counterparts. It is suggested that the government should consider building more health centers, clinics and cheap-compounds in at least every community, to help reduce the travel time in accessing health care.  The ministry of health and the Ghana health service should engage older citizens by encouraging them to use hospitals when they are sick instead of other alternative care providers.

  4. How health care reform can lower the costs of insurance administration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins, Sara R; Nuzum, Rachel; Rustgi, Sheila D; Mika, Stephanie; Schoen, Cathy; Davis, Karen

    2009-07-01

    The United States leads all industrialized countries in the share of national health care expenditures devoted to insurance administration. The U.S. share is over 30 percent greater than Germany's and more than three times that of Japan. This issue brief examines the sources of administrative costs and describes how a private-public approach to health care reform--with the central feature of a national insurance exchange (largely replacing the present individual and small-group markets)--could substantially lower such costs. In three variations on that approach, estimated administrative costs would fall from 12.7 percent of claims to an average of 9.4 percent. Savings--as much as $265 billion over 2010-2020--would be realized through less marketing and underwriting, reduced costs of claims administration, less time spent negotiating provider payment rates, and fewer or standardized commissions to insurance brokers.

  5. 32 CFR Appendix to Part 281 - Claims Description

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... advance decision functions for claims under the following statutes: (a) 31 U.S.C. 3702, concerning claims... SETTLING PERSONNEL AND GENERAL CLAIMS AND PROCESSING ADVANCE DECISION REQUESTS Pt. 281, App. Appendix to... Personnel Management performs these functions for claims involving civilian employees' compensation and...

  6. 42 CFR 456.722 - Electronic claims management system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... Electronic Claims Management System for Outpatient Drug Claims § 456.722 Electronic claims management system...'s Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) applicable to prescription drugs. (ii) Notifying the... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Electronic claims management system. 456.722...

  7. Increased Risk of Hospitalization for Heart Failure with Newly Prescribed Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors and Pioglitazone Using the Korean Health Insurance Claims Database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sunghwan Suh

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundWe assessed the association of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP4i with hospitalization for heart failure (HF using the Korean Health Insurance claims database.MethodsWe collected data on newly prescribed sitagliptin, vildagliptin, and pioglitazone between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2012 (mean follow-up of 336.8 days to 935,519 patients with diabetes (518,614 males and 416,905 females aged 40 to 79 years (mean age of 59.4 years.ResultsDuring the study, 998 patients were hospitalized for primary HF (115.7 per 100,000 patient-years. The incidence rate of hospitalization for HF was 117.7 per 100,000 per patient-years among patients on pioglitazone, 105.7 for sitagliptin, and 135.8 for vildagliptin. The hospitalization rate for HF was greatest in the first 30 days after starting the medication, which corresponded to a significantly higher incidence at days 0 to 30 compared with days 31 to 360 for all three drugs. The hazard ratios were 1.85 (pioglitazone, 2.00 (sitagliptin, and 1.79 (vildagliptin. The incidence of hospitalization for HF did not differ between the drugs for any time period.ConclusionThis study showed an increase in hospitalization for HF in the initial 30 days of the DPP4i and pioglitazone compared with the subsequent follow-up period. However, the differences between the drugs were not significant.

  8. 28 CFR 32.32 - Time for filing claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Time for filing claim. 32.32 Section 32.32 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS' DEATH, DISABILITY, AND EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE BENEFIT CLAIMS Educational Assistance Benefit Claims § 32.32 Time for filing claim. (a...

  9. Existing data sources for clinical epidemiology: the Danish Patient Compensation Association database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tilma J

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Jens Tilma,1 Mette Nørgaard,1 Kim Lyngby Mikkelsen,2 Søren Paaske Johnsen1 1Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, 2Danish Patient Compensation Association, Copenhagen, Denmark Abstract: Any patient in the Danish health care system who experiences a treatment injury can make a compensation claim to the Danish Patient Compensation Association (DPCA free of charge. The aim of this paper is to describe the DPCA database as a source of data for epidemiological research. Data to DPCA are collected prospectively on all claims and include information on patient factors and health records, system factors, and administrative data. Approval of claims is based on injury due to the principle of treatment below experienced specialist standard or intolerable, unexpected extensiveness of injury. Average processing time of a compensation claim is 6–8 months. Data collection is nationwide and started in 1992. The patient's central registration system number, a unique personal identifier, allows for data linkage to other registries such as the Danish National Patient Registry. The DPCA data are accessible for research following data usage permission and make it possible to analyze all claims or specific subgroups to identify predictors, outcomes, etc. DPCA data have until now been used only in few studies but could be a useful data source in future studies of health care-related injuries. Keywords: public health care, treatment injuries, no-fault compensation, registries, research, Denmark

  10. Uses and limitations of registry and academic databases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, William G

    2010-01-01

    A database is simply a structured collection of information. A clinical database may be a Registry (a limited amount of data for every patient undergoing heart surgery) or Academic (an organized and extensive dataset of an inception cohort of carefully selected subset of patients). A registry and an academic database have different purposes and cost. The data to be collected for a database is defined by its purpose and the output reports required for achieving that purpose. A Registry's purpose is to ensure quality care, an Academic Database, to discover new knowledge through research. A database is only as good as the data it contains. Database personnel must be exceptionally committed and supported by clinical faculty. A system to routinely validate and verify data integrity is essential to ensure database utility. Frequent use of the database improves its accuracy. For congenital heart surgeons, routine use of a Registry Database is an essential component of clinical practice. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. The Food Costs of Healthier School Lunches

    OpenAIRE

    Newman, Constance

    2012-01-01

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed and adopted a new set of meal pattern requirements for the National School Lunch Program that will allow schools to claim 6 cents more in lunch reimbursement rates. This study analyzes the food costs of school menus in 2005 that met many of the proposed requirements. Overall, schools that served more, and more diverse, non-starchy vegetables had higher average food costs, and schools that served menus with lower calories had lower food costs. The fo...

  12. Surgical exploration of hand wounds in the emergency room: Preliminary study of 80 personal injury claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mouton, J; Houdre, H; Beccari, R; Tarissi, N; Autran, M; Auquit-Auckbur, I

    2016-12-01

    The SHAM Insurance Company in Lyon, France, estimated that inadequate hand wound exploration in the emergency room (ER) accounted for 10% of all ER-related personal injury claims in 2013. The objective of this study was to conduct a critical analysis of 80 claims that were related to hand wound management in the ER and led to compensation by SHAM. Eighty claims filed between 2007 and 2010 were anonymised then included into the study. To be eligible, claims had to be filed with SHAM, related to the ER management of a hand wound in an adult, and closed at the time of the study. Claims related to surgery were excluded. For each claim, we recorded 104 items (e.g., epidemiology, treatments offered, and impact on social and occupational activities) and analysed. Of the 70 patients, 60% were manual workers. The advice of a surgeon was sought in 16% of cases. The most common wound sites were the thumb (33%) and index finger (17%). Among the missed lesions, most involved tendons (74%) or nerves (29%). Many patients had more than one reason for filing a claim. The main reasons were inadequate wound exploration (97%), stiffness (49%), and dysaesthesia (41%). One third of patients were unable to return to their previous job. Mean sick-leave duration was 148 days and mean time from discharge to best outcome was 4.19%. Most claims (79%) were settled directly with the insurance company, 16% after involvement of a public mediator, and 12% in court. The mean compensatory damages award was 4595Euros. Inadequate surgical exploration of hand wounds is common in the ER, carries a risk of lasting and sometimes severe residual impairment, and generates considerable societal costs. IV. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

  13. A cost-effectiveness analysis to illustrate the impact of cost definitions on results, interpretations and comparability of pharmacoeconomic studies in the US.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tunis, Sandra L

    2009-01-01

    There is a lack of a uniform proxy for defining direct medical costs in the US. This potentially important source of variation in modelling and other types of economic studies is often overlooked. The extent to which increased expenditures for an intervention can be offset by reductions in subsequent service costs can be directly related to the choice of cost definitions. To demonstrate how different cost definitions for direct medical costs can impact results and interpretations of a cost-effectiveness analysis. The IMS-CORE Diabetes Model was used to project the lifetime (35-year) cost effectiveness in the US of one pharmacological intervention 'medication A' compared with a second 'medication B' (both unspecified) for type 2 diabetes mellitus. The complications modelled included cardiovascular disease, renal disease, eye disease and neuropathy. The model had a Markov structure with Monte Carlo simulations. Utility values were derived from the published literature. Complication costs were obtained from a retrospective database study that extracted anonymous patient-level data from (primarily private payer) adjudicated medical and pharmaceutical claims. Costs for pharmacy services, outpatient services and inpatient hospitalizations were included. Cost definitions for complications included charged, allowed and paid amounts, and for medications included both wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) and average wholesale price (AWP). Costs were reported in year 2007 values. The cost-effectiveness results differed according to the particular combination of cost definitions employed. The use of charges greatly increased costs for complications. When the analysis incorporated WAC medication prices with charged amounts for complication costs, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for medication A versus medication B was $US6337 per QALY. When AWP prices were used with charged amounts, medication A became a dominant treatment strategy, i.e. lower costs with greater

  14. Implementing a Dynamic Database-Driven Course Using LAMP

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laverty, Joseph Packy; Wood, David; Turchek, John

    2011-01-01

    This paper documents the formulation of a database driven open source architecture web development course. The design of a web-based curriculum faces many challenges: a) relative emphasis of client and server-side technologies, b) choice of a server-side language, and c) the cost and efficient delivery of a dynamic web development, database-driven…

  15. Worst-Case-Optimal Dynamic Reinsurance for Large Claims

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Korn, Ralf; Menkens, Olaf; Steffensen, Mogens

    2012-01-01

    We control the surplus process of a non-life insurance company by dynamic proportional reinsurance. The objective is to maximize expected (utility of the) surplus under the worst-case claim development. In the large claim case with a worst-case upper limit on claim numbers and claim sizes, we fin...

  16. 32 CFR 536.29 - Revision of filed claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Investigation and Processing of Claims § 536.29 Revision of filed claims. (a... the writing alleges a new theory of liability, a new tortfeasor, a new party claimant, a different... amendment, not a new claim. Similarly, the addition of required information not on the original claim...

  17. Clinical Characteristics, Health Care Utilization and Costs Among Men with Primary or Secondary Hypogonadism in a US Commercially Insured Population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grabner, Michael; Bodhani, Amit; Khandelwal, Nikhil; Palli, Swetha; Bonine, Nicole; Khera, Mohit

    2017-01-01

    Hypogonadism is broadly associated with increases in chronic comorbid conditions and health care costs. Little is known about the specific impact of primary and secondary hypogonadism on health care costs. To characterize the health care cost and utilization burden of primary and secondary hypogonadism in a population of US men with commercial insurance. Newly diagnosed patients with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes associated with specific medical conditions known to have a high prevalence of testosterone deficiency (ie, relating to primary or secondary hypogonadism) or who had fills for testosterone replacement therapy from January 1, 2007 through April 30, 2013 were identified in administrative claims data from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database. A cohort of patients without hypogonadism was matched on demographics and comorbidities. The matched hypogonadism and non-hypogonadism cohorts (n = 5,777 in each cohort) were compared during a 12-month follow-up period. Direct health care expenditures and utilization were assessed for all causes and for hypogonadism-related claims. Costs included out-of-pocket patient expenditures and those paid by the insurer. Hypogonadism and matched non-hypogonadism cohorts were similar in demographics (mean age = 50 years) and diagnosed comorbid conditions in the 12 months preceding the index date. In the year after the index date, mean all-cause expenditures for patients with hypogonadism increased by 62% (from $5,425 to $8,813) compared with 25% for the matched controls (from $4,786 to $5,992; P groups). Approximately 16% of total mean costs ($1,377), primarily outpatient and pharmacy costs, were identifiable as related to hypogonadism. These data from a population of US men with commercial insurance coverage showed a greater resource use burden for patients with primary and secondary hypogonadism compared with similar patients without hypogonadism. Additional

  18. Health care costs of adults treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder who received alternative drug therapies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Eric Q; Birnbaum, Howard G; Zhang, Huabin F; Ivanova, Jasmina I; Yang, Elaine; Mallet, David

    2007-09-01

    Many therapies exist for treating adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), also referred to as attention-deficit disorder (ADD), but there is no research regarding cost differences associated with initiating alternative ADD/ADHD drug therapies in adults. To compare from the perspective of a large self-insured employer the risk-adjusted direct health care costs associated with 3 alternative drug therapies for ADD in newly treated patients: extended-release methylphenidate (osmotic release oral system-MPH), mixed amphetamine salts extended release (MAS-XR), or atomoxetine. We analyzed data from a US claims database of 5 million beneficiaries from 31 large self-insured employers (1999-2004). Analysis was restricted to adults aged 18 to 64 years with at least 1 diagnosis of ADD/ADHD (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] codes 314.0x--attention deficit disorder; 314.00--attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity; or 314.01--attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity) and at least 1 pharmacy claim for OROS-MPH, MAS-XR, or atomoxetine identified using National Drug Codes. In preliminary analysis, we calculated the duration of index ADHD drug therapy as time from index therapy initiation to a minimum 60-day gap. Because the median duration of index ADHD drug therapy was found to be approximately 90 days, the primary measures were total direct medical plus drug costs and medical-only costs computed over 6 months following therapy initiation. Adults were required to have continuous eligibility 6 months before and 6 months after their latest drug therapy initiation and no ADHD therapy during the previous 6 months. Cost was measured as the payment amount made by the health plan to the provider rather than billed charges, and it excluded patient copayments and deductibles. Medical costs included costs incurred for all-cause inpatient and outpatient/other services. Costs were adjusted for inflation to

  19. Asset Management Costs and Financial Performance of Dutch Pension Funds in 2011-2014

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hollanders, David

    2016-01-01

    The costs of Dutch pension funds have increased in the last decades. The costs, as a percentage of assets invested, doubled between 1992-2009. In 2014 total costs equalled 6.3 billion euro, or 19.6% of annual contributions. Asset management is the largest component of costs. Pension funds claim that

  20. 20 CFR 410.232 - Withdrawal of a claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Withdrawal of a claim. 410.232 Section 410.232 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT OF 1969... Claims and Evidence § 410.232 Withdrawal of a claim. (a) Before adjudication of claim. A claimant (or an...

  1. Secondary Use of Claims Data from the Austrian Health Insurance System with i2b2: A Pilot Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endel, Florian; Duftschmid, Georg

    2016-01-01

    In conformity with increasing international efforts to reuse routine health data for scientific purposes, the Main Association of Austrian Social Security Organisations provides pseudonymized claims data of the Austrian health care system for clinical research. We aimed to examine, whether an integration of the corresponding database into i2b2 would be possible and provide benefits. We applied docker-based software containers and data transformations to set up the system. To assess the benefits of i2b2 we plan to reenact the task of cohort formation of an earlier research project. The claims database was successfully integrated into i2b2. The docker-based installation approach will be published as git repository. The assessment of i2b2's benefits is currently work in progress and will be presented at the conference. Docker enables a flexible, reproducible, and resource-efficient installation of i2b2 within the restricted environment implied by our highly secured target system. First preliminary tests indicated several potential benefits of i2b2 compared to the methods applied during the earlier research project.

  2. 27 CFR 70.608 - Action on claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... Section 70.608 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO TAX AND TRADE BUREAU, DEPARTMENT... appropriate TTB officer shall date stamp and examine each claim filed under this subpart and will determine the validity of the claim. Claims and supporting data involving customs duties will be forwarded to...

  3. Cost considerations in remediation and disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dance, J.T.; Huddleston, R.D.

    1999-01-01

    Opportunities for assessing the costs associated with the reclamation and remediation of sites contaminated by oilfield wastes are discussed. The savings can be maximized by paying close attention to five different aspects of the overall site remediation and disposal process. These are: (1) highly focused site assessment, (2) cost control of treatment and disposal options, (3) value added cost benefits, (4) opportunities to control outside influences during the remedial process, and (5) opportunities for managing long-term liabilities and residual risk remaining after the remedial program is completed. It is claimed that addressing these aspects of the process will ultimately lower the overall cost of site remediation and waste disposal

  4. 32 CFR 537.16 - Scope for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Scope for maritime claims. 537.16 Section 537.16... BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES § 537.16 Scope for maritime claims. The Army Maritime Claims Settlement Act... claims for damage to: (1) DA-accountable properties of a kind that are within the federal maritime...

  5. 32 CFR 536.119 - Scope for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Scope for maritime claims. 536.119 Section 536... CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.119 Scope for maritime claims. The AMCSA applies...) Damage that is maritime in nature and caused by tortious conduct of U.S. military personnel or federal...

  6. 31 CFR 360.29 - Adjudication of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Adjudication of claims. 360.29 Section 360.29 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued) FISCAL... the ordinary course of business. (b) Claims filed 10 years after payment. Any claim filed 10 years or...

  7. 32 CFR 842.76 - Filing a claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... by a demand for money damages in a sum certain. A claim incorrectly presented to the Air Force will... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE CLAIMS AND LITIGATION ADMINISTRATIVE.... A claim has been filed when a federal agency receives from a claimant or the claimant's duly...

  8. CLAIMS FOR REINBURSEMENT OF EDUCATION FEES

    CERN Multimedia

    PE-ADS

    1999-01-01

    You are reminded that, in accordance with Article R A 8.07 of the Staff Regulations 'the relevant bills shall be grouped so that not more than three claims in respect of each child are submitted in an academic year'.For this purpose:-\tthe academic year is defined as the period going from 1st September to 31st August,-\tonly paid bills can be subject to reimbursement,-\ta claim for reimbursement of education fees may only include bills for expenses incurred during a given academic year for a given child,-\tbills for one child may be grouped on a claim by periods of term, semester or academic year,-\tthe months of July and August should be included in the third term, or the second semester, or the academic year,-\tfor each dependent child, a maximum of 3 claims can be submitted for the reimbursement of expenses incurred during one academic year, therefore, any bill submitted for reimbursement after the third claim will not be reimbursed.Please make sure that you have receive...

  9. CLAIMS FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF EDUCATION FEES

    CERN Multimedia

    Personnel Division

    1999-01-01

    REMINDERYou are reminded that, in accordance with Article R A 8.07 of the Staff Regulations 'the relevant bills shall be grouped so that not more than three claims in respect of each child are submitted in an academic year'.For this purpose:the academic year is defined as the period going from 1st September to 31st August, only paid bills can be subject to reimbursement, a claim for reimbursement of education fees may only include bills for expenses incurred during a given academic year for a given child, bills for one child may be grouped on a claim by periods of term, semester or academic year, the months of July and August should be included in the third term, or the second semester, or the academic year, for each dependent child, a maximum of 3 claims can be submitted for the reimbursement of expenses incurred during one academic year, therefore, any bill submitted for reimbursement after the third claim will not be reimbursed.Please make sure that you have received and paid all bills, including those for...

  10. 32 CFR 536.117 - Statutory authority for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Statutory authority for maritime claims. 536.117... ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.117 Statutory authority for maritime claims. The Army Maritime Claims Settlement Act (AMCSA) (10 U.S.C. 4801-04, 4806, as amended) authorizes the...

  11. 32 CFR 842.129 - Settlement of claims against NAFIs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... LITIGATION ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS Nonappropriated Fund Claims § 842.129 Settlement of claims against NAFIs. (a) This subpart does not establish legal theories for adjudication of claims. Refer to the appropriate...

  12. Healthcare Databases in Thailand and Japan: Potential Sources for Health Technology Assessment Research.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Surasak Saokaew

    Full Text Available Health technology assessment (HTA has been continuously used for value-based healthcare decisions over the last decade. Healthcare databases represent an important source of information for HTA, which has seen a surge in use in Western countries. Although HTA agencies have been established in Asia-Pacific region, application and understanding of healthcare databases for HTA is rather limited. Thus, we reviewed existing databases to assess their potential for HTA in Thailand where HTA has been used officially and Japan where HTA is going to be officially introduced.Existing healthcare databases in Thailand and Japan were compiled and reviewed. Databases' characteristics e.g. name of database, host, scope/objective, time/sample size, design, data collection method, population/sample, and variables were described. Databases were assessed for its potential HTA use in terms of safety/efficacy/effectiveness, social/ethical, organization/professional, economic, and epidemiological domains. Request route for each database was also provided.Forty databases- 20 from Thailand and 20 from Japan-were included. These comprised of national censuses, surveys, registries, administrative data, and claimed databases. All databases were potentially used for epidemiological studies. In addition, data on mortality, morbidity, disability, adverse events, quality of life, service/technology utilization, length of stay, and economics were also found in some databases. However, access to patient-level data was limited since information about the databases was not available on public sources.Our findings have shown that existing databases provided valuable information for HTA research with limitation on accessibility. Mutual dialogue on healthcare database development and usage for HTA among Asia-Pacific region is needed.

  13. Healthcare Databases in Thailand and Japan: Potential Sources for Health Technology Assessment Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saokaew, Surasak; Sugimoto, Takashi; Kamae, Isao; Pratoomsoot, Chayanin; Chaiyakunapruk, Nathorn

    2015-01-01

    Health technology assessment (HTA) has been continuously used for value-based healthcare decisions over the last decade. Healthcare databases represent an important source of information for HTA, which has seen a surge in use in Western countries. Although HTA agencies have been established in Asia-Pacific region, application and understanding of healthcare databases for HTA is rather limited. Thus, we reviewed existing databases to assess their potential for HTA in Thailand where HTA has been used officially and Japan where HTA is going to be officially introduced. Existing healthcare databases in Thailand and Japan were compiled and reviewed. Databases' characteristics e.g. name of database, host, scope/objective, time/sample size, design, data collection method, population/sample, and variables were described. Databases were assessed for its potential HTA use in terms of safety/efficacy/effectiveness, social/ethical, organization/professional, economic, and epidemiological domains. Request route for each database was also provided. Forty databases- 20 from Thailand and 20 from Japan-were included. These comprised of national censuses, surveys, registries, administrative data, and claimed databases. All databases were potentially used for epidemiological studies. In addition, data on mortality, morbidity, disability, adverse events, quality of life, service/technology utilization, length of stay, and economics were also found in some databases. However, access to patient-level data was limited since information about the databases was not available on public sources. Our findings have shown that existing databases provided valuable information for HTA research with limitation on accessibility. Mutual dialogue on healthcare database development and usage for HTA among Asia-Pacific region is needed.

  14. 48 CFR 33.208 - Interest on claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... otherwise would be due, if that date is later, until the date of payment. (b) Simple interest on claims... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Interest on claims. 33.208... REQUIREMENTS PROTESTS, DISPUTES, AND APPEALS Disputes and Appeals 33.208 Interest on claims. (a) The Government...

  15. 32 CFR 842.24 - Filing a claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... properly completed AF Form 180, DD Form 1842 or other written and signed demand for a specified sum of money. (b) Amending a claim. A claimant may amend a claim at any time prior to the expiration of the... Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE CLAIMS AND LITIGATION ADMINISTRATIVE...

  16. 16 CFR 260.7 - Environmental marketing claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... pieces if left uncovered in sunlight.” The claim is supported by competent and reliable scientific... sunlight and into sufficiently small pieces to become part of the soil. The qualified claim is not... time. The claim is not deceptive. Example 4: A plastic six-pack ring carrier is marked with a small...

  17. Perception of health claims among Nordic consumers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grunert, Klaus G.; Lähteenmäki, Liisa; Boztug, Yasemin

    2009-01-01

    . Claims were constructed from an underlying universe combining different active ingredients (familiar, unfamiliar), type of claim (combination of information about ingredient, physiological function and health benefit), framing (positive, negative) and use of qualifier (with, without 'may'). Across pairs...... of active ingredient, physiological function and health benefit, whereas the other prefers 'short' claims consisting of the health benefit only. Results also showed that the familiar ingredient is preferred to the unfamiliar one, whereas effects of positive vs. negative framing depended on the type......Health claim perception was investigated by a web-based instrument with a sample of 4612 respondents in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden). Respondents decided which of a pair of claims sounded better, was easier to understand, and was more convincing in their opinion...

  18. Big Data and Total Hip Arthroplasty: How Do Large Databases Compare?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bedard, Nicholas A; Pugely, Andrew J; McHugh, Michael A; Lux, Nathan R; Bozic, Kevin J; Callaghan, John J

    2018-01-01

    Use of large databases for orthopedic research has become extremely popular in recent years. Each database varies in the methods used to capture data and the population it represents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how these databases differed in reported demographics, comorbidities, and postoperative complications for primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) patients. Primary THA patients were identified within National Surgical Quality Improvement Programs (NSQIP), Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), Medicare Standard Analytic Files (MED), and Humana administrative claims database (HAC). NSQIP definitions for comorbidities and complications were matched to corresponding International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision/Current Procedural Terminology codes to query the other databases. Demographics, comorbidities, and postoperative complications were compared. The number of patients from each database was 22,644 in HAC, 371,715 in MED, 188,779 in NIS, and 27,818 in NSQIP. Age and gender distribution were clinically similar. Overall, there was variation in prevalence of comorbidities and rates of postoperative complications between databases. As an example, NSQIP had more than twice the obesity than NIS. HAC and MED had more than 2 times the diabetics than NSQIP. Rates of deep infection and stroke 30 days after THA had more than 2-fold difference between all databases. Among databases commonly used in orthopedic research, there is considerable variation in complication rates following THA depending upon the database used for analysis. It is important to consider these differences when critically evaluating database research. Additionally, with the advent of bundled payments, these differences must be considered in risk adjustment models. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Impact of a Comprehensive Workplace Hand Hygiene Program on Employer Health Care Insurance Claims and Costs, Absenteeism, and Employee Perceptions and Practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arbogast, James W; Moore-Schiltz, Laura; Jarvis, William R; Harpster-Hagen, Amanda; Hughes, Jillian; Parker, Albert

    2016-06-01

    The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of a multimodal hand hygiene intervention program in reducing health care insurance claims for hygiene preventable infections (eg, cold and influenza), absenteeism, and subjective impact on employees. A 13.5-month prospective, randomized cluster controlled trial was executed with alcohol-based hand sanitizer in strategic workplace locations and personal use (intervention group) and brief hand hygiene education (both groups). Four years of retrospective data were collected for all participants. Hygiene-preventable health care claims were significantly reduced in the intervention group by over 20% (P Employee survey data showed significant improvements in hand hygiene behavior and perception of company concern for employee well-being. Providing a comprehensive, targeted, yet simple to execute hand hygiene program significantly reduced the incidence of health care claims and increased employee workplace satisfaction.

  20. The use of breast conserving surgery: linking insurance claims with tumor registry data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maskarinec, Gertraud; Dhakal, Sanjaya; Yamashiro, Gladys; Issell, Brian F

    2002-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to use insurance claims and tumor registry data to examine determinants of breast conserving surgery (BCS) in women with early stage breast cancer. Breast cancer cases registered in the Hawaii Tumor Registry (HTR) from 1995 to 1998 were linked with insurance claims from a local health plan. We identified 722 breast cancer cases with stage I and II disease. Surgical treatment patterns and comorbidities were identified using diagnostic and procedural codes in the claims data. The HTR database provided information on demographics and disease characteristics. We used logistic regression to assess determinants of BCS vs. mastectomy. The linked data set represented 32.8% of all early stage breast cancer cases recorded in the HTR during the study period. Due to the nature of the health plan, 79% of the cases were younger than 65 years. Women with early stage breast cancer living on Oahu were 70% more likely to receive BCS than women living on the outer islands. In the univariate analysis, older age at diagnosis, lower tumor stage, smaller tumor size, and well-differentiated tumor grade were related to receiving BCS. Ethnicity, comorbidity count, menopausal and marital status were not associated with treatment type. In addition to developing solutions that facilitate access to radiation facilities for breast cancer patients residing in remote locations, future qualitative research may help to elucidate how women and oncologists choose between BCS and mastectomy

  1. Food claims and nutrition facts of commercial infant foods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, Yu-Chin; Chang, Jung-Su; Chen, Yi Chun

    2018-01-01

    Composition claim, nutrition claim and health claim are often found on the commercial complementary food packaging. The introduction of complementary foods (CFs) to infants is a turning point in the development of their eating behavior, and their commercial use for Taiwanese infants is growing. In Taiwan, lots of the advertisements for CFs employed health or nutrition claims to promote the products, but the actual nutritional content of these CFs is not clear. The aim of this study was to compare the food claims of commercial complementary food products with their actual nutrition facts. A sample of 363 commercial CFs was collected from websites, local supermarkets, and other food stores, and their nutrition-related claims were classified into composition, nutrition, and health categories. Although the World Health Organization recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, 48.2% of the commercial CFs were targeted at infants younger than 6 months. Therefore, marketing regulations should be implemented to curb early weaning as a result of products targeted at infants younger than 6 months. More than 50% of Taiwanese commercial CFs have high sugar content and more than 20% were high in sodium. Products with health claims, such as "provides good nutrition to children" or "improves appetite," have higher sodium or sugar content than do those without such claims. Moreover, products with calcium or iron content claims did not contain more calcium or iron than products without such claims. Additionally, a significantly greater proportion of the products with "no added sugar" claims were classified as having high sugar content as compared to those without such claims. Parents cannot choose the healthiest food products for their children by simply focusing on food claims. Government should regulate the labeling of nutrition facts and food claims for foods targeted at infants younger than 12 months.

  2. Preparing College Students To Search Full-Text Databases: Is Instruction Necessary?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riley, Cheryl; Wales, Barbara

    Full-text databases allow Central Missouri State University's clients to access some of the serials that libraries have had to cancel due to escalating subscription costs; EbscoHost, the subject of this study, is one such database. The database is available free to all Missouri residents. A survey was designed consisting of 21 questions intended…

  3. 36 CFR 1009.4 - Payment of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... TORT CLAIMS ACT § 1009.4 Payment of claims. (a) When an award of $2,500 or less is made, the voucher signed by the claimant shall be transmitted for payment to the Presidio Trust. When an award over $2,500... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Payment of claims. 1009.4...

  4. Treatment persistence & health care costs of adult MDD patients treated with escitalopram vs. citalopram in a medicaid population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Eric Q; Ben-Hamadi, Rym; Lu, Mei; Beaulieu, Nicolas; Yu, Andrew P; Erder, M Haim

    2012-01-01

    Compare treatment persistence and health care costs of major depressive disorder (MDD) Medicaid patients treated with escitalopram versus citalopram. Retrospective analysis of Medicaid administrative claims data. Analyzed administrative claims data from the Florida Medicaid program (07/2002-06/2006) for patients ages 18-64 years with 21 inpatient claim or 2 independent medical claims for MDD. Outcomes included discontinuation and switching rates and prescription drug, medical, and total health care costs, all-cause and related to mental disorder. Contingency table analysis and survival analysis were used to compare outcomes between treatment groups, using both unadjusted analysis and multivariate analysis adjusting for baseline characteristics. The study included 2,650 patients initiated on escitalopram and 630 patients initiated on citalopram. Patients treated with escitalopram were less likely to discontinue the index drug (63.7% vs. 68.9%, P=0.015) or to switch to another second-generation antidepressant (14.9% vs. 18.4%, P=0.029) over the six months post-index date. Patients treated with escitalopram had $1,014 lower total health care costs (P=0.032) and $519 lower health care costs related to mental disorder (P=0.023). More than half of the total cost difference was attributable to savings in inpatient hospitalizations related to mental disorder ($571, P=0.003) and to outpatient costs ($53, PEscitalopram therapy was also associated with $736 lower medical costs related to mental disorder (P=0.009). In the Florida Medicaid program, compared to adult MDD patients initiated on citalopram, escitalopram patients have better treatment persistence and lower total health care costs due to any cause and due to mental disorder, mostly driven by lower hospitalization costs related to mental disorder.

  5. The plaintiff's two-sided mouth: defeating ADA claims based on inconsistent positions taken by the plaintiff on other claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connell, D S

    1996-01-01

    In the typical ADA claim, the plaintiff will claim that he or she has a disability but is nevertheless able to perform the essential functions of his or her job. This position is often in direct conflict with other non-ADA claims that the plaintiff has made or is making, where the plaintiff is claiming total disability and/or that he or she is unable to work. This article examines these phenomena, reviews the numerous recent cases that have found for employers based on these inconsistent positions of the plaintiff, and explains how employers can be develop and present this defense.

  6. 40 CFR 1620.2 - Administrative claim; when presented.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS ARISING UNDER THE FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT § 1620.2 Administrative claim; when presented. (a... negligence or wrongful act or omission of the CSB or its employees must be mailed or delivered to the Office...

  7. 32 CFR Appendix B to Part 282 - Claims Description

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... perform the claims settlement and advance decision functions for claims under the following statutes: (a...) MISCELLANEOUS PROCEDURES FOR SETTLING PERSONNEL AND GENERAL CLAIMS AND PROCESSING ADVANCE DECISION REQUESTS Pt... Director of the Office of Personnel Management performs these functions for claims involving civilian...

  8. Medical insurance claims associated with international business travel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liese, B; Mundt, K A; Dell, L D; Nagy, L; Demure, B

    1997-07-01

    Preliminary investigations of whether 10,884 staff and consultants of the World Bank experience disease due to work related travel. Medical insurance claims filed by 4738 travellers during 1993 were compared with claims of non-travellers. Specific diagnoses obtained from claims were analysed overall (one or more v no missions) and by frequency of international mission (1, 2-3, or > or = 4). Standardised rate of claims ratios (SSRs) for each diagnostic category were obtained by dividing the age adjusted rate of claims for travellers by the age adjusted rate of claims for non-travellers, and were calculated for men and women travellers separately. Overall, rates of insurance claims were 80% higher for men and 18% higher for women travellers than their non-travelling counterparts. Several associations with frequency of travel were found. SRRs for infectious disease were 1.28, 1.54, and 1.97 among men who had completed one, two or three, and four or more missions, and 1.16, 1.28, and 1.61, respectively, among women. The greatest excess related to travel was found for psychological disorders. For men SRRs were 2.11, 3.13, and 3.06 and for women, SRRs were 1.47, 1.96, and 2.59. International business travel may pose health risks beyond exposure to infectious diseases. Because travellers file medical claims at a greater rate than non-travellers, and for many categories of disease, the rate of claims increases with frequency of travel. The reasons for higher rates of claims among travellers are not well understood. Additional research on psychosocial factors, health practices, time zones crossed, and temporal relation between travel and onset of disease is planned.

  9. Perceived relevance and foods with health-related claims

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dean, M.; Lampila, P.; Shepherd, R.

    2012-01-01

    consumers’ responses to health claims that either promise to reduce a targeted disease risk or improve well-being in comparison to other types of health-related messages, and how attitudes towards nutritionally healthy eating, functional food and previous experience relating to products with health claims...... affect the consumers’ perceptions of nutrition and health claims. The data (N = 2385) were collected by paper and pencil surveys in Finland, the UK, Germany and Italy on a target group of consumers over 35 year old, solely or jointly responsible for the family’s food shopping. The results showed...... risk reduction with detailed information about function and health outcome. Previous experience with products with health claims and interest in nutritionally healthy eating promoted the utility of all claims, regardless of whether they were health or nutrition claims. However, to be influenced...

  10. XML: James Webb Space Telescope Database Issues, Lessons, and Status

    Science.gov (United States)

    Detter, Ryan; Mooney, Michael; Fatig, Curtis

    2003-01-01

    . In our review of the database requirements and the COTS software available, only very expensive COTS software will meet 90% of requirements. Even with the high projected initial cost of COTS, the development and support for custom code over the 19-year mission period was forecasted to be higher than the total licensing costs. A group did look at reusing existing database tools and formats. If the JWST database was already in a mature state, the reuse made sense, but with the database still needing to handing the addition of different types of command and telemetry structures, defining new spacecraft systems, accept input and export to systems which has not been defined yet, XML provided the flexibility desired. It remains to be determined whether the XML database will reduce the over all cost for the JWST mission.

  11. Predicting number of hospitalization days based on health insurance claims data using bagged regression trees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Yang; Schreier, Günter; Chang, David C W; Neubauer, Sandra; Redmond, Stephen J; Lovell, Nigel H

    2014-01-01

    Healthcare administrators worldwide are striving to both lower the cost of care whilst improving the quality of care given. Therefore, better clinical and administrative decision making is needed to improve these issues. Anticipating outcomes such as number of hospitalization days could contribute to addressing this problem. In this paper, a method was developed, using large-scale health insurance claims data, to predict the number of hospitalization days in a population. We utilized a regression decision tree algorithm, along with insurance claim data from 300,000 individuals over three years, to provide predictions of number of days in hospital in the third year, based on medical admissions and claims data from the first two years. Our method performs well in the general population. For the population aged 65 years and over, the predictive model significantly improves predictions over a baseline method (predicting a constant number of days for each patient), and achieved a specificity of 70.20% and sensitivity of 75.69% in classifying these subjects into two categories of 'no hospitalization' and 'at least one day in hospital'.

  12. Radiation injury claims: an overview and update

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schaffer, W.G.

    1984-01-01

    The author reviews the radiation injury claims problem and summarizes the legal framework in which the claims are presently brought. Two cases are reviewed in which the decisions are troubling. The implications of these decisions are discussed in the overall radiation injury claims problem. The author notes that in the largest radiation injury case tried in the United States, the court was unable to resolve the claims within the confines of the existing law. The disregard for established norms of adjudication and the resultant decline in predictability of outcome portends grave consequences, not only for the nuclear industry but for other industries involved with potentially toxic substances

  13. Understanding Adherence and Prescription Patterns Using Large-Scale Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjarnadóttir, Margrét V; Malik, Sana; Onukwugha, Eberechukwu; Gooden, Tanisha; Plaisant, Catherine

    2016-02-01

    Advanced computing capabilities and novel visual analytics tools now allow us to move beyond the traditional cross-sectional summaries to analyze longitudinal prescription patterns and the impact of study design decisions. For example, design decisions regarding gaps and overlaps in prescription fill data are necessary for measuring adherence using prescription claims data. However, little is known regarding the impact of these decisions on measures of medication possession (e.g., medication possession ratio). The goal of the study was to demonstrate the use of visualization tools for pattern discovery, hypothesis generation, and study design. We utilized EventFlow, a novel discrete event sequence visualization software, to investigate patterns of prescription fills, including gaps and overlaps, utilizing large-scale healthcare claims data. The study analyzes data of individuals who had at least two prescriptions for one of five hypertension medication classes: ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, and diuretics. We focused on those members initiating therapy with diuretics (19.2%) who may have concurrently or subsequently take drugs in other classes as well. We identified longitudinal patterns in prescription fills for antihypertensive medications, investigated the implications of decisions regarding gap length and overlaps, and examined the impact on the average cost and adherence of the initial treatment episode. A total of 790,609 individuals are included in the study sample, 19.2% (N = 151,566) of whom started on diuretics first during the study period. The average age was 52.4 years and 53.1% of the population was female. When the allowable gap was zero, 34% of the population had continuous coverage and the average length of continuous coverage was 2 months. In contrast, when the allowable gap was 30 days, 69% of the population showed a single continuous prescription period with an average length of 5

  14. Factors influencing decisions on delay claims in construction contracts for Indian scenario

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nitin Balkrishna Chaphalkar

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Construction industry in India is second largest next to agriculture. In current era of infrastructure development construction projects occupy a key position. In any construction project contract time and cost overrun is a common feature, which gives rise to claims leading to disputes. These disputes if not handled properly tend to consume time and money of all parties to the contract. To resolve the dispute in optimum time, it is essential to understand the root cause of disputes as early as possible. Hence there is a need of analyzing the disputes scientifically.  The present study reveals from the study of arbitration awards that the causes for delay claims can be grouped in domains and the probable decisions to the disputes can be traced through the probing questions considered by decision makers. This paper attempts to identify questions related to disputes for Indian scenario through literature, arbitration awards, court cases and discussions with professionals.

  15. Factors influencing decisions on delay claims in construction contracts for Indian scenario

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nitin Balkrishna Chaphalkar

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available   Construction industry in India is second largest next to agriculture. In current era of infrastructure development construction projects occupy a key position. In any construction project contract time and cost overrun is a common feature, which gives rise to claims leading to disputes. These disputes if not handled properly tend to consume time and money of all parties to the contract. To resolve the dispute in optimum time, it is essential to understand the root cause of disputes as early as possible. Hence there is a need of analyzing the disputes scientifically.  The present study reveals from the study of arbitration awards that the causes for delay claims can be grouped in domains and the probable decisions to the disputes can be traced through the probing questions considered by decision makers. This paper attempts to identify questions related to disputes for Indian scenario through literature, arbitration awards, court cases and discussions with professionals.

  16. Trends in workers compensation costs in a hotel-operating company over a six-year period.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelley, C R; Mark, C R

    1995-03-01

    A large Honolulu-based hotel-operating company reviewed its workers compensation costs over the last 6 years. Data retrieved from the company's computerized data base is used to describe trends in injury incidence rate, average cost per claim, average medical cost per claim, and medical expenses as a percentage of total costs. Factors that might have influenced these parameters include company reorganization, employee training and safety programs, changes in the economy, company morale, aggressive case management, and the quality of the adjusting services hired. Cause-and-effect relationships, although suggested, cannot be proven. The data is presented, in this year of imminent workers compensation legislative reform, to increase the available factual data base on which rational and efficacious reform proposals can be developed.

  17. Do Insurers Have to Pay for Bad Behaviour in Settling Claims? Legal Aspects of Insurers' Wrongful Claims Handling

    OpenAIRE

    Boom, Willem

    2011-01-01

    textabstractAbstract: This article presents a comparative legal analysis of wrongful claims handling by insurance companies in indemnity and liability insurance. From the outset, it is clear that it may be difficult to draw the line between legitimate claims denial and refusal to pay, on the one hand, and malicious protraction, procrastination and rejection of valid claims, on the other hand. Therefore, it is interesting to find that European legal systems diverge considerably in their stance...

  18. Medication errors: an analysis comparing PHICO's closed claims data and PHICO's Event Reporting Trending System (PERTS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benjamin, David M; Pendrak, Robert F

    2003-07-01

    Clinical pharmacologists are all dedicated to improving the use of medications and decreasing medication errors and adverse drug reactions. However, quality improvement requires that some significant parameters of quality be categorized, measured, and tracked to provide benchmarks to which future data (performance) can be compared. One of the best ways to accumulate data on medication errors and adverse drug reactions is to look at medical malpractice data compiled by the insurance industry. Using data from PHICO insurance company, PHICO's Closed Claims Data, and PHICO's Event Reporting Trending System (PERTS), this article examines the significance and trends of the claims and events reported between 1996 and 1998. Those who misread history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. From a quality improvement perspective, the categorization of the claims and events is useful for reengineering integrated medication delivery, particularly in a hospital setting, and for redesigning drug administration protocols on low therapeutic index medications and "high-risk" drugs. Demonstrable evidence of quality improvement is being required by state laws and by accreditation agencies. The state of Florida requires that quality improvement data be posted quarterly on the Web sites of the health care facilities. Other states have followed suit. The insurance industry is concerned with costs, and medication errors cost money. Even excluding costs of litigation, an adverse drug reaction may cost up to $2500 in hospital resources, and a preventable medication error may cost almost $4700. To monitor costs and assess risk, insurance companies want to know what errors are made and where the system has broken down, permitting the error to occur. Recording and evaluating reliable data on adverse drug events is the first step in improving the quality of pharmacotherapy and increasing patient safety. Cost savings and quality improvement evolve on parallel paths. The PHICO data

  19. The increased cost of medical services for people diagnosed with primary open-angle glaucoma: a decision analytic approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kymes, Steven M; Plotzke, Michael R; Li, Jim Z; Nichol, Michael B; Wu, Joanne; Fain, Joel

    2010-07-01

    Glaucoma accounts for more than 11% of all cases of blindness in the United States, but there have been few studies of economic impact. We examine incremental cost of primary open-angle glaucoma considering both visual and nonvisual medical costs over a lifetime of glaucoma. A decision analytic approach taking the payor's perspective with microsimulation estimation. We constructed a Markov model to replicate health events over the remaining lifetime of someone newly diagnosed with glaucoma. Costs of this group were compared with those estimated for a control group without glaucoma. The cost of management of glaucoma (including medications) before the onset of visual impairment was not considered. The model was populated with probability data estimated from Medicare claims data (1999 through 2005). Cost of nonocular medications and nursing home use was estimated from California Medicare claims, and all other costs were estimated from Medicare claims data. We found modest differences in the incidence of comorbid conditions and health service use between people with glaucoma and the control group. Over their expected lifetime, the cost of care for people with primary open-angle glaucoma was higher than that of people without primary open-angle glaucoma by $1688 or approximately $137 per year. Among Medicare beneficiaries, glaucoma diagnosis not found to be associated with significant risk of comorbidities before development of visual impairment. Further study is necessary to consider the impact of glaucoma on quality of life, as well as aspects of physical and visual function not captured in this claims-based analysis. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. 37 CFR 360.22 - Form and content of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    .... 360.22 Section 360.22 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media Royalty Claims § 360.22 Form and content of claims. (a) Forms. (1...

  1. 32 CFR 536.124 - Settlement authority for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Settlement authority for maritime claims. 536.124 Section 536.124 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.124 Settlement authority for maritime...

  2. 40 CFR 14.12 - Principal types of unallowable claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Principal types of unallowable claims... PERSONAL PROPERTY CLAIMS § 14.12 Principal types of unallowable claims. Claims that ordinarily will not be... valid appraisal or authentication with the carrier prior to shipment of the item; (d) Loss of bankbooks...

  3. 32 CFR 537.18 - Settlement authority for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Settlement authority for maritime claims. 537.18 Section 537.18 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS CLAIMS ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES § 537.18 Settlement authority for maritime claims. (a) The...

  4. 32 CFR 536.111 - Investigation of claims arising under international agreements (for those claims arising in the...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... under international agreements (for those claims arising in the United States). Responsibility for... civilian component is attached, including the legal office of another armed force, to carry out the responsibility to investigate. The investigation will comply with the responsible Service's implementing claims...

  5. Impact of corporate social responsibility claims on consumer food choice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mueller Loose, Simone; Remaud, Hervé

    2013-01-01

    Purpose - The study assesses the impact of two different corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims, relating to social and environmental dimensions, on consumers’ wine choice across international markets. It is analysed how point of purchase CSR claims compete with other food claims and their ......Purpose - The study assesses the impact of two different corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims, relating to social and environmental dimensions, on consumers’ wine choice across international markets. It is analysed how point of purchase CSR claims compete with other food claims...... Eastcoast, the US Midwest, Anglophone and Francophone Canada. Findings - CSR claims relating to social and environmental responsibility have a similar awareness, penetration and consumer trust, but differ in their impact on consumer choice, where environmental corporate responsibility claims benefit from...... a higher marginal willingness to pay. Consumer valuation of CSR claims significantly differs across international markets, but is consistently lower than for organic claims. Research limitations/implications - The study was limited to wine and future research is required to generalise findings to other...

  6. Database mirroring in fault-tolerant continuous technological process control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Danel

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the implementations of mirroring technology of the selected database systems – Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Caché. By simulating critical failures the systems behavior and their resilience against failure were tested. The aim was to determine whether the database mirroring is suitable to use in continuous metallurgical processes for ensuring the fault-tolerant solution at affordable cost. The present day database systems are characterized by high robustness and are resistant to sudden system failure. Database mirroring technologies are reliable and even low-budget projects can be provided with a decent fault-tolerant solution. The database system technologies available for low-budget projects are not suitable for use in real-time systems.

  7. DOE technology information management system database study report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Widing, M.A.; Blodgett, D.W.; Braun, M.D.; Jusko, M.J.; Keisler, J.M.; Love, R.J.; Robinson, G.L. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Decision and Information Sciences Div.

    1994-11-01

    To support the missions of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Special Technologies Program, Argonne National Laboratory is defining the requirements for an automated software system that will search electronic databases on technology. This report examines the work done and results to date. Argonne studied existing commercial and government sources of technology databases in five general areas: on-line services, patent database sources, government sources, aerospace technology sources, and general technology sources. First, it conducted a preliminary investigation of these sources to obtain information on the content, cost, frequency of updates, and other aspects of their databases. The Laboratory then performed detailed examinations of at least one source in each area. On this basis, Argonne recommended which databases should be incorporated in DOE`s Technology Information Management System.

  8. Draft secure medical database standard.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pangalos, George

    2002-01-01

    Medical database security is a particularly important issue for all Healthcare establishments. Medical information systems are intended to support a wide range of pertinent health issues today, for example: assure the quality of care, support effective management of the health services institutions, monitor and contain the cost of care, implement technology into care without violating social values, ensure the equity and availability of care, preserve humanity despite the proliferation of technology etc.. In this context, medical database security aims primarily to support: high availability, accuracy and consistency of the stored data, the medical professional secrecy and confidentiality, and the protection of the privacy of the patient. These properties, though of technical nature, basically require that the system is actually helpful for medical care and not harmful to patients. These later properties require in turn not only that fundamental ethical principles are not violated by employing database systems, but instead, are effectively enforced by technical means. This document reviews the existing and emerging work on the security of medical database systems. It presents in detail the related problems and requirements related to medical database security. It addresses the problems of medical database security policies, secure design methodologies and implementation techniques. It also describes the current legal framework and regulatory requirements for medical database security. The issue of medical database security guidelines is also examined in detailed. The current national and international efforts in the area are studied. It also gives an overview of the research work in the area. The document also presents in detail the most complete to our knowledge set of security guidelines for the development and operation of medical database systems.

  9. 32 CFR 536.123 - Limitation of liability for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Limitation of liability for maritime claims. 536... AND ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.123 Limitation of liability for maritime claims. For admiralty claims arising within the United States under the provisions of the...

  10. The high cost of clinical negligence litigation in the NHS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tingle, John

    2017-03-09

    John Tingle, Reader in Health Law at Nottingham Trent University, discusses a consultation document from the Department of Health on introducing fixed recoverable costs in lower-value clinical negligence claims.

  11. Management of sacroiliac joint disruption and degenerative sacroiliitis with nonoperative care is medical resource-intensive and costly in a United States commercial payer population

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ackerman SJ

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Stacey J Ackerman,1 David W Polly Jr,2 Tyler Knight,3 Tim Holt,4 John Cummings5 1Covance Market Access Services Inc, San Diego, CA, USA; 2University of Minnesota, Orthopaedic Surgery, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 3Covance Market Access Services Inc, Gaithersburg, MD, USA; 4Montgomery Spine Center, Orthopaedic Surgery, Montgomery, AL, USA; 5Community Health Network, Neurosurgery, Indianapolis, IN, USA Introduction: Low back pain is common and originates in the sacroiliac (SI joint in 15%–30% of cases. Traditional SI joint disruption/degenerative sacroiliitis treatments include nonoperative care or open SI joint fusion. To evaluate the usefulness of newly developed minimally-invasive technologies, the costs of traditional treatments must be better understood. We assessed the costs of nonoperative care for SI joint disruption to commercial payers in the United States (US. Methods: A retrospective study of claim-level medical resource use and associated costs used the MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters as well as Medicare Supplemental Databases of Truven Healthcare. Patients with a primary ICD-9-CM diagnosis code for SI joint disruption (720.2, 724.6, 739.4, 846.9, or 847.3, an initial date of diagnosis from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2007 (index date, and continuous enrollment for ≥1 year before and 3 years after the index date were included. Claims attributable to SI joint disruption with a primary or secondary ICD-9-CM diagnosis code of 71x.xx, 72x.xx, 73x.xx, or 84x.xx were identified; the 3-year medical resource use-associated reimbursement and outpatient pain medication costs (measured in 2011 US dollars were tabulated across practice settings. A subgroup analysis was performed among patients with lumbar spinal fusion. Results: The mean 3-year direct, attributable medical costs were $16,196 (standard deviation [SD] $28,592 per privately-insured patient (N=78,533. Among patients with lumbar spinal fusion (N=434, attributable 3-year

  12. 49 CFR 1021.4 - Notice of claim and demand.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Notice of claim and demand. 1021.4 Section 1021.4... § 1021.4 Notice of claim and demand. Initiation of administrative collection of enforcement claims will be commenced by the enforcement collection designee mailing a letter of notice of claim and demand to...

  13. 32 CFR 537.19 - Demands arising from maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Demands arising from maritime claims. 537.19 Section 537.19 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS CLAIMS ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES § 537.19 Demands arising from maritime claims. (a) It is...

  14. 7 CFR 220.14 - Claims against school food authorities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM § 220.14 Claims against school food authorities. (a) State agencies shall disallow any portion of a claim and recover any payment made... FNSRO, when FNSRO disallows a claim or a portion of a claim, or makes a demand for refund of an alleged...

  15. Estimating direct and indirect costs of premenstrual syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borenstein, Jeff; Chiou, Chiun-Fang; Dean, Bonnie; Wong, John; Wade, Sally

    2005-01-01

    To quantify the economic impact of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) on the employer. Data were collected from 374 women aged 18-45 with regular menses. Direct costs were quantified using administrative claims of these patients and the Medicare Fee Schedule. Indirect costs were quantified by both self-reported days of work missed and lost productivity at work. Regression analyses were used to develop a model to project PMS-related direct and indirect costs. A total of 29.6% (n = 111) of the participants were diagnosed with PMS. A PMS diagnosis was associated with an average annual increase of $59 in direct costs (P increase in direct medical costs and a large increase in indirect costs.

  16. Performance Evaluation of Cloud Database and Traditional Database in terms of Response Time while Retrieving the Data

    OpenAIRE

    Donkena, Kaushik; Gannamani, Subbarayudu

    2012-01-01

    Context: There has been an exponential growth in the size of the databases in the recent times and the same amount of growth is expected in the future. There has been a firm drop in the storage cost followed by a rapid increase in t he storage capacity. The entry of Cloud in the recent times has changed the equations. The Performance of the Database plays a vital role in the competition. In this research, an attempt has been made to evaluate and compare the performance of the traditional data...

  17. Consumer understanding of sugars claims on food and drink products

    OpenAIRE

    Patterson, N J; Sadler, M J; Cooper, J M

    2012-01-01

    Consumer understanding of nutrition and health claims is a key aspect of current regulations in the European Union (EU). In view of this, qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to investigate consumer awareness and understanding of product claims in the UK, focusing particularly on nutrition claims relating to sugars. Both research methods identified a good awareness of product claims. No added sugars claims were generally preferred to reduced sugars claims, and there was ...

  18. 32 CFR 536.118 - Related statutes for maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Related statutes for maritime claims. 536.118... ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.118 Related statutes for maritime claims... under the AMCSA is not mandatory for causes of action as it is for the SIAA or PVA. (b) Similar maritime...

  19. Identifying Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Patients in Retrospective Databases When Diagnosis Codes Are Not Available: A Validation Study Comparing Medication/Prescriber Visit-Based Algorithms with Diagnosis Codes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobson-Belaire, Wendy; Goodfield, Jason; Borrelli, Richard; Liu, Fei Fei; Khan, Zeba M

    2018-01-01

    Using diagnosis code-based algorithms is the primary method of identifying patient cohorts for retrospective studies; nevertheless, many databases lack reliable diagnosis code information. To develop precise algorithms based on medication claims/prescriber visits (MCs/PVs) to identify psoriasis (PsO) patients and psoriatic patients with arthritic conditions (PsO-AC), a proxy for psoriatic arthritis, in Canadian databases lacking diagnosis codes. Algorithms were developed using medications with narrow indication profiles in combination with prescriber specialty to define PsO and PsO-AC. For a 3-year study period from July 1, 2009, algorithms were validated using the PharMetrics Plus database, which contains both adjudicated medication claims and diagnosis codes. Positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), sensitivity, and specificity of the developed algorithms were assessed using diagnosis code as the reference standard. Chosen algorithms were then applied to Canadian drug databases to profile the algorithm-identified PsO and PsO-AC cohorts. In the selected database, 183,328 patients were identified for validation. The highest PPVs for PsO (85%) and PsO-AC (65%) occurred when a predictive algorithm of two or more MCs/PVs was compared with the reference standard of one or more diagnosis codes. NPV and specificity were high (99%-100%), whereas sensitivity was low (≤30%). Reducing the number of MCs/PVs or increasing diagnosis claims decreased the algorithms' PPVs. We have developed an MC/PV-based algorithm to identify PsO patients with a high degree of accuracy, but accuracy for PsO-AC requires further investigation. Such methods allow researchers to conduct retrospective studies in databases in which diagnosis codes are absent. Copyright © 2018 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. A clinical analysis of 500 medico-legal claims evaluating the causes and assessing the potential benefit of alternative dispute resolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    B-Lynch, C; Coker, A; Dua, J A

    1996-12-01

    1. To evaluate the common causes of medico-legal dispute in obstetrics and gynaecology. 2. To assess the potential benefit of early alternative dispute resolution. A prospective analysis of over 500 cases submitted from over 100 solicitors between 1984 and 1994 for medical expert opinion on potential medico-legal claims. Five hundred consecutive cases that met the inclusion criteria: 488 from the United Kingdom and 12 from abroad (Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland). The main principles underlining medico-legal disputes and causes of such claims. Analysis of 500 claims show 46% were misguided allegations, 19% incompetent care, 12% error of judgement, 9% lack of expertise, 7% failure of communication, 6% poor supervision and 1% inadequate staffing. Of the misguided allegations 119/225 cases (59%) were obstetric and 111/275 (40%) cases were gynaecological. The most common cause of obstetric dispute was "cerebral palsy' (22%), while the commonest cause of gynaecological dispute was failed sterilisation (19%). Settled claims were under-reported by solicitors. Because of the high percentage (46%) of misguided allegations, an alternative course of dispute resolution must be a realistic way forward. This course of action, combined with improved communication, could result in a major reduction in the costs of potential medical litigation. Early alternative dispute resolution should be considered in an attempt to reduce the escalating quantum of damages and costs. We recommend recruiting independent, experienced and unbiased consultants in active practice within the appropriate specialty to review such cases at the level of hospital complaints management as an in house review procedure, particularly for small and moderate-sized claims, as a means whereby doctors can retain control of medico-legal disputes, in contrast to control by the legal profession.

  1. Delayed otolaryngology referral for voice disorders increases health care costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Seth M; Kim, Jaewhan; Roy, Nelson; Courey, Mark

    2015-04-01

    Despite the accepted role of laryngoscopy in assessing patients with laryngeal/voice disorders, controversy surrounds its timing. This study sought to determine how increased time from first primary care to first otolaryngology outpatient visit affected the health care costs of patients with laryngeal/voice disorders. Retrospective analysis of a large, national administrative claims database was performed. Patients had an International Classification of Diseases, 9(th) Revision-coded diagnosis of a laryngeal/voice disorder; initially saw a primary care physician and, subsequently, an otolaryngologist as outpatients; and provided 6 months of follow-up data after the first otolaryngology evaluation. The outpatient health care costs accrued from the first primary care outpatient visit through the 6 months after the first otolaryngology outpatient visit were determined. There were 260,095 unique patients who saw a primary care physician as an outpatient for a laryngeal/voice disorder, with 8999 (3.5%) subsequently seeing an otolaryngologist and with 6 months postotolaryngology follow-up data. A generalized linear regression model revealed that, compared with patients who saw an otolaryngologist ≤1 month after the first primary care visit, patients in the >1-month and ≤3-months and >3-months time periods had relative mean cost increases of $271.34 (95% confidence interval $115.95-$426.73) and $711.38 (95% confidence interval $428.43-$993.34), respectively. Increased time from first primary care to first otolaryngology evaluation is associated with increased outpatient health care costs. Earlier otolaryngology examination may reduce health care expenditures in the evaluation and management of patients with laryngeal/voice disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. 49 CFR 22.69 - Claim process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Claim process. 22.69 Section 22.69 Transportation Office of the Secretary of Transportation SHORT-TERM LENDING PROGRAM (STLP) Loan Administration § 22.69 Claim process. After reasonable efforts have been exhausted to collect on a delinquent debt, the...

  3. Health and nutrition content claims on Australian fast-food websites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wellard, Lyndal; Koukoumas, Alexandra; Watson, Wendy L; Hughes, Clare

    2017-03-01

    To determine the extent that Australian fast-food websites contain nutrition content and health claims, and whether these claims are compliant with the new provisions of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code ('the Code'). Systematic content analysis of all web pages to identify nutrition content and health claims. Nutrition information panels were used to determine whether products with claims met Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criteria (NPSC) and qualifying criteria, and to compare them with the Code to determine compliance. Australian websites of forty-four fast-food chains including meals, bakery, ice cream, beverage and salad chains. Any products marketed on the websites using health or nutrition content claims. Of the forty-four fast-food websites, twenty (45 %) had at least one claim. A total of 2094 claims were identified on 371 products, including 1515 nutrition content (72 %) and 579 health claims (28 %). Five fast-food products with health (5 %) and 157 products with nutrition content claims (43 %) did not meet the requirements of the Code to allow them to carry such claims. New provisions in the Code came into effect in January 2016 after a 3-year transition. Food regulatory agencies should review fast-food websites to ensure compliance with the qualifying criteria for nutrition content and health claim regulations. This would prevent consumers from viewing unhealthy foods as healthier choices. Healthy choices could be facilitated by applying NPSC to nutrition content claims. Fast-food chains should be educated on the requirements of the Code regarding claims.

  4. 41 CFR 105-55.003 - Antitrust, fraud, tax, interagency claims, and claims over $100,000 excluded.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... apply to any debt based in whole or in part on conduct in violation of the antitrust laws or to any debt... antitrust laws or any claim involving fraud, the presentation of a false claim, or misrepresentation on the... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Antitrust, fraud, tax...

  5. An Intelligent Assistant for Construction of Terrain Databases

    OpenAIRE

    Rowe, Neil C.; Reed, Chris; Jackson, Leroy; Baer, Wolfgang

    1998-01-01

    1998 Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, Monterey CA, June 1998, 481-486. We describe TELLUSPLAN, an intelligent assistant for the problem of bargaining between user goals and system resources in the integration of terrain databases from separate source databases. TELLUSPLAN uses nondeterministic methods from artificial intelligence and a detailed cost model to infer the most reasonable compromise with the user's needs. Supported by the Army Artificial Int...

  6. 37 CFR 360.14 - Copies of claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Section 360.14 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Satellite... royalty fees. ...

  7. 28 CFR 104.31 - Procedure for claims evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... COMPENSATION FUND OF 2001 Claim Intake, Assistance, and Review Procedures § 104.31 Procedure for claims..., described herein as “Track A” and “Track B,” selected by the claimant on the Personal Injury Compensation Form or Death Compensation Form. (1) Procedure for Track A. The Claims Evaluator shall determine...

  8. 33 CFR 211.22 - Real estate Claims Officers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Real estate Claims Officers. 211..., DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE REAL ESTATE ACTIVITIES OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS IN CONNECTION WITH CIVIL WORKS PROJECTS Real Estate Claims § 211.22 Real estate Claims Officers. In each Division Office the Division...

  9. Health claims made on multivitamin and mineral supplements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jelena Jovičić

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Basic purpose of health claims is consumers' benefit by providing information about healthy eating habits. It is necessary for health claims to be scientifically substantiated and truthful. Health claims should not attribute to food the property of preventing, treating or curing a human disease. Use of health claims should be followed by a statement indicating the importance of a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. The objective of this research was to examine the compliance of health claims made on multivitamin and mineral dietary supplements' labels on the Serbian market with national regulation concerning health safety of dietary products.Methods: An assessment of labels of MVMs was done in two privately owned pharmacies in Novi Sad, Serbia in August 2010.Results: In total, 48 MVMs were sampled and 22 health claims were detected. Seven out of 22 health claims were in compliance with the national regulation. The main reason for health claims on foreign MVMs not to be compliant with the regulation in Serbia was inadequate or nonexistent translation of original labels.Conclusion: Detected use of terms such as "prevention", "treatment" and "indications" on vitamin and mineral dietary supplements' labels is both forbidden and misleading to consumers. Coupled with inadequate or nonexistent translation of the labels, it leads to a low level of protection of Serbian consumers. It is necessary to establish an effective monitoring system for dietary supplements' labeling on a national scale in order toprotect consumers and their wellbeing.

  10. Status of medical liability claims in Saudi Arabia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samarkandi, A.

    2006-01-01

    With the evolution of health services in Saudi Arabia, there has been increase in the number of medical practice litigations. The author analyzed the medical malpractice litigation that was referred to the National Medico-Legal Committee (MLC) in order to evaluate the magnitude and underlying factors of the problem in Saudi Arabia. A retrospective analysis of the official records of Medico-Legal malpractice over the period 1420H-1424H (199-2003) was performed. The incidence among different medical specialties, location, and final resolution of each claim were identified. Data analysis revealed an increasing trend in the total number of claims over the study period, with a sharp increase in the transition between 1422H and 1423H (2001-200). The distribution of claims over different medical specialties showed that obstetrical practice took the lead with 27%, followed by general surgery and subspecialties, represented by 17% each, internal medicine 13%, while pediatrics contributed 10% of claims: the fewest claims were in dentistry with 2.5%. The majority of claims were referred to the Ministry of Health and private sectors medical facilities. Most claims were from the Riyadh region over the period between 1420H to 1422H (1999-2001), while thereafter, during 1423 and 1424H (2002 and 2003), the Holy Capital had the highest number of claims referred to the MLC. Adherence to standards of medical practice is by far the best approach to avoid or reduce the incidence of litigation. (author)

  11. When is an image a health claim? A false-recollection method to detect implicit inferences about products' health benefits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klepacz, Naomi A; Nash, Robert A; Egan, M Bernadette; Hodgkins, Charo E; Raats, Monique M

    2016-08-01

    Images on food and dietary supplement packaging might lead people to infer (appropriately or inappropriately) certain health benefits of those products. Research on this issue largely involves direct questions, which could (a) elicit inferences that would not be made unprompted, and (b) fail to capture inferences made implicitly. Using a novel memory-based method, in the present research, we explored whether packaging imagery elicits health inferences without prompting, and the extent to which these inferences are made implicitly. In 3 experiments, participants saw fictional product packages accompanied by written claims. Some packages contained an image that implied a health-related function (e.g., a brain), and some contained no image. Participants studied these packages and claims, and subsequently their memory for seen and unseen claims were tested. When a health image was featured on a package, participants often subsequently recognized health claims that-despite being implied by the image-were not truly presented. In Experiment 2, these recognition errors persisted despite an explicit warning against treating the images as informative. In Experiment 3, these findings were replicated in a large consumer sample from 5 European countries, and with a cued-recall test. These findings confirm that images can act as health claims, by leading people to infer health benefits without prompting. These inferences appear often to be implicit, and could therefore be highly pervasive. The data underscore the importance of regulating imagery on product packaging; memory-based methods represent innovative ways to measure how leading (or misleading) specific images can be. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Healthcare resource use and costs of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany before and during fampridine treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziemssen, Tjalf; Prosser, Christine; Haas, Jennifer Scarlet; Lee, Andrew; Braun, Sebastian; Landsman-Blumberg, Pamela; Kempel, Angela; Gleißner, Erika; Patel, Sarita; Huang, Ming-Yi

    2017-03-27

    Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients often suffer from gait impairment and fampridine is indicated to medically improve walking ability in this population. Patient characteristics, healthcare resource use, and costs of MS patients on fampridine treatment for 12 months in Germany were analyzed. A retrospective claims database analysis was conducted including MS patients who initiated fampridine treatment (index date) between July 2011 and December 2013. Continuous insurance enrollment during 12 months pre- and post-index date was required, as was at least 1 additional fampridine prescription in the fourth quarter after the index date. Patient characteristics were evaluated and pre- vs post-index MS-related healthcare utilization and costs were compared. A total of 562 patients were included in this study. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) age was 50.5 (9.8) years and 63% were female. In the treatment period, almost every patient had at least 1 MS-related outpatient visit, 24% were hospitalized due to MS, and 79% utilized MS-specific physical therapy in addition to the fampridine treatment. Total MS-related healthcare costs were significantly higher in the fampridine treatment period than in the period prior to fampridine initiation (€17,392 vs €10,960, P treatment (€1,333 vs €1,565, P treatment. While healthcare costs were higher during fampridine treatment compared to the pre-treatment period, inpatient costs were lower. Further research is necessary to better understand the fampridine influence.

  13. Using ontology databases for scalable query answering, inconsistency detection, and data integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dou, Dejing

    2011-01-01

    An ontology database is a basic relational database management system that models an ontology plus its instances. To reason over the transitive closure of instances in the subsumption hierarchy, for example, an ontology database can either unfold views at query time or propagate assertions using triggers at load time. In this paper, we use existing benchmarks to evaluate our method—using triggers—and we demonstrate that by forward computing inferences, we not only improve query time, but the improvement appears to cost only more space (not time). However, we go on to show that the true penalties were simply opaque to the benchmark, i.e., the benchmark inadequately captures load-time costs. We have applied our methods to two case studies in biomedicine, using ontologies and data from genetics and neuroscience to illustrate two important applications: first, ontology databases answer ontology-based queries effectively; second, using triggers, ontology databases detect instance-based inconsistencies—something not possible using views. Finally, we demonstrate how to extend our methods to perform data integration across multiple, distributed ontology databases. PMID:22163378

  14. 20 CFR 410.705 - Duplicate claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Duplicate claims. 410.705 Section 410.705 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT OF 1969, TITLE IV-BLACK LUNG BENEFITS (1969- ) Rules for the Review of Denied and Pending Claims Under the Black Lung...

  15. Consumers’ willingness to pay for sustainable wine claims

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mueller, Simone; Remaud, Hervé; Chabin, Yann

    attributes (price, brand, region of origin and appellation system, grape variety, alcohol level, medal, sensory style, bottling, and sustainable claim), considering the majority of attributes, which are known to be important to consumers and preventing an overestimation of the effect of sustainable claims......-choice reference alternative. Findings: Of all sustainable claims, organic had the highest impact on consumer choice, followed by a privately used claim ‘protect the planet’. Carbon zero wines were only significantly positively valued in the UK, where consumers were made aware of its meaning through national...

  16. Analysis of functionality free CASE-tools databases design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. V. Gavrilov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The introduction in the educational process of database design CASEtechnologies requires the institution of significant costs for the purchase of software. A possible solution could be the use of free software peers. At the same time this kind of substitution should be based on even-com representation of the functional characteristics and features of operation of these programs. The purpose of the article – a review of the free and non-profi t CASE-tools database design, as well as their classifi cation on the basis of the analysis functionality. When writing this article were used materials from the offi cial websites of the tool developers. Evaluation of the functional characteristics of CASEtools for database design made exclusively empirically with the direct work with software products. Analysis functionality of tools allow you to distinguish the two categories CASE-tools database design. The first category includes systems with a basic set of features and tools. The most important basic functions of these systems are: management connections to database servers, visual tools to create and modify database objects (tables, views, triggers, procedures, the ability to enter and edit data in table mode, user and privilege management tools, editor SQL-code, means export/import data. CASE-system related to the first category can be used to design and develop simple databases, data management, as well as a means of administration server database. A distinctive feature of the second category of CASE-tools for database design (full-featured systems is the presence of visual designer, allowing to carry out the construction of the database model and automatic creation of the database on the server based on this model. CASE-system related to this categories can be used for the design and development of databases of any structural complexity, as well as a database server administration tool. The article concluded that the

  17. Database citation in full text biomedical articles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kafkas, Şenay; Kim, Jee-Hyub; McEntyre, Johanna R

    2013-01-01

    Molecular biology and literature databases represent essential infrastructure for life science research. Effective integration of these data resources requires that there are structured cross-references at the level of individual articles and biological records. Here, we describe the current patterns of how database entries are cited in research articles, based on analysis of the full text Open Access articles available from Europe PMC. Focusing on citation of entries in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), UniProt and Protein Data Bank, Europe (PDBe), we demonstrate that text mining doubles the number of structured annotations of database record citations supplied in journal articles by publishers. Many thousands of new literature-database relationships are found by text mining, since these relationships are also not present in the set of articles cited by database records. We recommend that structured annotation of database records in articles is extended to other databases, such as ArrayExpress and Pfam, entries from which are also cited widely in the literature. The very high precision and high-throughput of this text-mining pipeline makes this activity possible both accurately and at low cost, which will allow the development of new integrated data services.

  18. Medico-legal claims against English radiologists: 1995-2006.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpin, S F S

    2009-12-01

    A list of claims against radiologists from 1995-2006 was obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority. It shows a total of 440 claims. The largest number of claims (199) related to delayed or missed diagnoses of cancer, and 73 claims related to breast radiology. There is a trend for a mild increase in the number of claims each year. 30 claims were made after a false-positive diagnosis of cancer. Just under pound8.5 million has so far been paid in damages, with a further pound5 million in legal fees. A claim for multiple missed diagnoses of breast cancer led to a pay-out of pound464 000 ( pound673 000 after legal fees); the largest sum awarded following a delay in the diagnosis of an individual cancer was pound300 000. The subtle legal distinction between error and negligence is reviewed here. The reason why breast radiologists are more likely to be sued than any other type of British radiologist is also discussed, along with the implications for UK radiological practice, particularly in light of the recent Chief Medical Officer's report on revalidation. A method is proposed that may protect radiologists from allegations of clinical negligence in the future.

  19. 13 CFR 142.3 - What is a claim?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 13 Business Credit and Assistance 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false What is a claim? 142.3 Section 142.3 Business Credit and Assistance SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM FRAUD CIVIL REMEDIES ACT REGULATIONS Overview and Definitions § 142.3 What is a claim? (a) Claim means any request, demand, or...

  20. General scientific guidance for stakeholders on health claim applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sjödin, Anders Mikael

    2016-01-01

    of Article 13.1 claims except for claims put on hold by the European Commission, and has evaluated additional health claim applications submitted pursuant to Articles 13.5, 14 and also 19. In addition, comments received from stakeholders indicate that general issues that are common to all health claims need...... based on the experience gained to date with the evaluation of health claims, and it may be further updated, as appropriate, when additional issues are addressed.......The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked the Panel on Dietetic Products Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) to update the General guidance for stakeholders on the evaluation of Article 13.1, 13.5 and 14 health claims published in March 2011. Since then, the NDA Panel has completed the evaluation...

  1. Cost-effectiveness of left ventricular assist devices for patients with end-stage heart failure: analysis of the French hospital discharge database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tadmouri, Abir; Blomkvist, Josefin; Landais, Cécile; Seymour, Jerome; Azmoun, Alexandre

    2018-02-01

    Although left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are currently approved for coverage and reimbursement in France, no French cost-effectiveness (CE) data are available to support this decision. This study aimed at estimating the CE of LVAD compared with medical management in the French health system. Individual patient data from the 'French hospital discharge database' (Medicalization of information systems program) were analysed using Kaplan-Meier method. Outcomes were time to death, time to heart transplantation (HTx), and time to death after HTx. A micro-costing method was used to calculate the monthly costs extracted from the Program for the Medicalization of Information Systems. A multistate Markov monthly cycle model was developed to assess CE. The analysis over a lifetime horizon was performed from the perspective of the French healthcare payer; discount rates were 4%. Probabilistic and deterministic sensitivity analyses were performed. Outcomes were quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and incremental CE ratio (ICER). Mean QALY for an LVAD patient was 1.5 at a lifetime cost of €190 739, delivering a probabilistic ICER of €125 580/QALY [95% confidence interval: 105 587 to 150 314]. The sensitivity analysis showed that the ICER was mainly sensitive to two factors: (i) the high acquisition cost of the device and (ii) the device performance in terms of patient survival. Our economic evaluation showed that the use of LVAD in patients with end-stage heart failure yields greater benefit in terms of survival than medical management at an extra lifetime cost exceeding the €100 000/QALY. Technological advances and device costs reduction shall hence lead to an improvement in overall CE. © 2017 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

  2. European consumers and health claims: attitudes, understanding and purchasing behaviour.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wills, Josephine M; Storcksdieck genannt Bonsmann, Stefan; Kolka, Magdalena; Grunert, Klaus G

    2012-05-01

    Health claims on food products are often used as a means to highlight scientifically proven health benefits associated with consuming those foods. But do consumers understand and trust health claims? This paper provides an overview of recent research on consumers and health claims including attitudes, understanding and purchasing behaviour. A majority of studies investigated selective product-claim combinations, with ambiguous findings apart from consumers' self-reported generic interest in health claims. There are clear indications that consumer responses differ substantially according to the nature of carrier product, the type of health claim, functional ingredient used or a combination of these components. Health claims tend to be perceived more positively when linked to a product with an overall positive health image, whereas some studies demonstrate higher perceived credibility of products with general health claims (e.g. omega-3 and brain development) compared to disease risk reduction claims (e.g. bioactive peptides to reduce risk of heart disease), others report the opposite. Inconsistent evidence also exists on the correlation between having a positive attitude towards products with health claims and purchase intentions. Familiarity with the functional ingredient and/or its claimed health effect seems to result in a more favourable evaluation. Better nutritional knowledge, however, does not automatically lead to a positive attitude towards products carrying health messages. Legislation in the European Union requires that the claim is understood by the average consumer. As most studies on consumers' understanding of health claims are based on subjective understanding, this remains an area for more investigation.

  3. 32 CFR 842.31 - Claims payable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... which last for an extended period of time. The claimant must be free of negligence. (i) Claims for... hazards may be negligence. These types of claims would include pitted windshields, dents, chipped paint on..., or power outages which last for an extended period of time. The claimant must be free of negligence...

  4. 25 CFR 11.707 - Claims against estate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... executor or administrator within 60 days from official notice of the appointment of the executor or... appropriate notice for the filing of claims. (b) The executor or administrator shall examine all claims within...

  5. 28 CFR 543.32 - Processing the claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ..., Central Office for their review. (f) Will appreciation or depreciation be considered? Yes. Staff will consider appreciation or depreciation of lost or damaged property in settling a claim. (g) If my claim is...

  6. Precise large deviations of aggregate claims in a size-dependent renewal risk model with stopping time claim-number process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuo Zhang

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract In this paper, we consider a size-dependent renewal risk model with stopping time claim-number process. In this model, we do not make any assumption on the dependence structure of claim sizes and inter-arrival times. We study large deviations of the aggregate amount of claims. For the subexponential heavy-tailed case, we obtain a precise large-deviation formula; our method substantially relies on a martingale for the structure of our models.

  7. Are the claims made in orthopaedic print advertisements valid?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, Donald J; Rankin, Kenneth S; Jensen, Cyrus D; Moverley, Robert; Reed, Mike R; Sprowson, Andrew P

    2014-05-01

    Advertisements are commonplace in orthopaedic journals and may influence the readership with claims of clinical and scientific fact. Since the last assessment of the claims made in orthopaedic print advertisements ten years ago, there have been legislative changes and media scrutiny which have shaped this practice. The purpose of this study is to re-evaluate these claims. Fifty claims from 50 advertisements were chosen randomly from six highly respected peer-reviewed orthopaedic journals (published July-December 2011). The evidence supporting each claim was assessed and validated by three orthopaedic surgeons. The assessors, blinded to product and company, rated the evidence and answered the following questions: Does the evidence as presented support the claim made in the advertisement and what is the quality of that evidence? Is the claim supported by enough evidence to influence your own clinical practice? Twenty-eight claims cited evidence from published literature, four from public presentations, 11 from manufacturer "data held on file" and seven had no supporting evidence. Only 12 claims were considered to have high-quality evidence and only 11 were considered well supported. A strong correlation was seen between the quality of evidence and strength of support (Spearman r = 0.945, p advertisements. High-quality evidence is required by orthopaedic surgeons to influence clinical practice and this evidence should be sought by manufacturers wishing to market a successful product.

  8. Direct medical costs and medication compliance among fibromyalgia patients: duloxetine initiators vs. pregabalin initiators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Peter; Peng, Xiaomei; Sun, Steve; Novick, Diego; Faries, Douglas E; Andrews, Jeffrey S; Wohlreich, Madelaine M; Wu, Andrew

    2014-01-01

    To assess and compare direct medical costs and medication compliance between patients with fibromyalgia who initiated duloxetine and patients with fibromyalgia who initiated pregabalin in 2008. A retrospective cohort study design was used based on a large US national commercial claims database (2006 to 2009). Patients with fibromyalgia aged 18 to 64 who initiated duloxetine or pregabalin in 2008 and who had continuous health insurance 1 year preceding and 1 year following the initiation were selected into duloxetine cohort or pregabalin cohort based on their initiated agent. Medication compliance was measured by total supply days, medication possession ratio (MPR), and proportion of patients with MPR ≥ 0.8. Direct medical costs were measured by annual costs per patient and compared between the cohorts in the year following the initiation. Propensity score stratification and bootstrapping methods were used to adjust for distribution bias, as well as cross-cohort differences in demographic, clinical and economic characteristics, and medication history prior to the initiation. Both the duloxetine (n = 3,033) and pregabalin (n = 4,838) cohorts had a mean initiation age around 49 years, 89% were women. During the postindex year, compared to the pregabalin cohort, the duloxetine cohort had higher totally annual supply days (273.5 vs. 176.6, P costs ($2,994.9 vs. $4,949.6, P costs ($8,259.6 vs. $10,312.2, P costs ($5,214.6 vs. $5,290.8, P > 0.05), and lower total medical costs ($16,469.1 vs. $20,552.6, P compliance and consumed less inpatient, outpatient, and total medical costs than those who initiated pregabalin. © 2013 The Authors Pain Practice © 2013 World Institute of Pain.

  9. 16 CFR 460.22 - Tax claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Tax claims. 460.22 Section 460.22 Commercial Practices FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION TRADE REGULATION RULES LABELING AND ADVERTISING OF HOME INSULATION § 460.22 Tax claims. Do not say or imply that your product qualifies for a tax benefit unless it is true. ...

  10. A practical approach for calculating reliable cost estimates from observational data: application to cost analyses in maternal and child health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salemi, Jason L; Comins, Meg M; Chandler, Kristen; Mogos, Mulubrhan F; Salihu, Hamisu M

    2013-08-01

    Comparative effectiveness research (CER) and cost-effectiveness analysis are valuable tools for informing health policy and clinical care decisions. Despite the increased availability of rich observational databases with economic measures, few researchers have the skills needed to conduct valid and reliable cost analyses for CER. The objectives of this paper are to (i) describe a practical approach for calculating cost estimates from hospital charges in discharge data using publicly available hospital cost reports, and (ii) assess the impact of using different methods for cost estimation in maternal and child health (MCH) studies by conducting economic analyses on gestational diabetes (GDM) and pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity. In Florida, we have constructed a clinically enhanced, longitudinal, encounter-level MCH database covering over 2.3 million infants (and their mothers) born alive from 1998 to 2009. Using this as a template, we describe a detailed methodology to use publicly available data to calculate hospital-wide and department-specific cost-to-charge ratios (CCRs), link them to the master database, and convert reported hospital charges to refined cost estimates. We then conduct an economic analysis as a case study on women by GDM and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) status to compare the impact of using different methods on cost estimation. Over 60 % of inpatient charges for birth hospitalizations came from the nursery/labor/delivery units, which have very different cost-to-charge markups (CCR = 0.70) than the commonly substituted hospital average (CCR = 0.29). Using estimated mean, per-person maternal hospitalization costs for women with GDM as an example, unadjusted charges ($US14,696) grossly overestimated actual cost, compared with hospital-wide ($US3,498) and department-level ($US4,986) CCR adjustments. However, the refined cost estimation method, although more accurate, did not alter our conclusions that infant/maternal hospitalization costs

  11. Missed Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease in Outpatient General Medicine: Insights from Malpractice Claims Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quinn, Gene R; Ranum, Darrell; Song, Ellen; Linets, Margarita; Keohane, Carol; Riah, Heather; Greenberg, Penny

    2017-10-01

    Diagnostic errors are an underrecognized source of patient harm, and cardiovascular disease can be challenging to diagnose in the ambulatory setting. Although malpractice data can inform diagnostic error reduction efforts, no studies have examined outpatient cardiovascular malpractice cases in depth. A study was conducted to examine the characteristics of outpatient cardiovascular malpractice cases brought against general medicine practitioners. Some 3,407 closed malpractice claims were analyzed in outpatient general medicine from CRICO Strategies' Comparative Benchmarking System database-the largest detailed database of paid and unpaid malpractice in the world-and multivariate models were created to determine the factors that predicted case outcomes. Among the 153 patients in cardiovascular malpractice cases for whom patient comorbidities were coded, the majority (63%) had at least one traditional cardiac risk factor, such as diabetes, tobacco use, or previous cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular malpractice cases were more likely to involve an allegation of error in diagnosis (75% vs. 47%, p <0.0001), have high clinical severity (86% vs. 49%, p <0.0001) and result in death (75% vs. 27%, p <0.0001), as compared to noncardiovascular cases. Initial diagnoses of nonspecific chest pain and mimics of cardiovascular pain (for example, esophageal disease) were common and independently increased the likelihood of a claim resulting in a payment (p <0.01). Cardiovascular malpractice cases against outpatient general medicine physicians mostly occur in patients with conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease and are often diagnosed with common mimics of cardiovascular pain. These findings suggest that these patients may be high-yield targets for preventing diagnostic errors in the ambulatory setting. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Bluetooth wireless database for scoliosis clinics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lou, E; Fedorak, M V; Hill, D L; Raso, J V; Moreau, M J; Mahood, J K

    2003-05-01

    A database system with Bluetooth wireless connectivity has been developed so that scoliosis clinics can be run more efficiently and data can be mined for research studies without significant increases in equipment cost. The wireless database system consists of a Bluetooth-enabled laptop or PC and a Bluetooth-enabled handheld personal data assistant (PDA). Each patient has a profile in the database, which has all of his or her clinical history. Immediately prior to the examination, the orthopaedic surgeon selects a patient's profile from the database and uploads that data to the PDA over a Bluetooth wireless connection. The surgeon can view the entire clinical history of the patient while in the examination room and, at the same time, enter in any new measurements and comments from the current examination. After seeing the patient, the surgeon synchronises the newly entered information with the database wirelessly and prints a record for the chart. This combination of the database and the PDA both improves efficiency and accuracy and can save significant time, as there is less duplication of work, and no dictation is required. The equipment required to implement this solution is a Bluetooth-enabled PDA and a Bluetooth wireless transceiver for the PC or laptop.

  13. Database Description - Trypanosomes Database | LSDB Archive [Life Science Database Archive metadata

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available List Contact us Trypanosomes Database Database Description General information of database Database name Trypanosomes Database...stitute of Genetics Research Organization of Information and Systems Yata 1111, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, JAPAN E mail: Database...y Name: Trypanosoma Taxonomy ID: 5690 Taxonomy Name: Homo sapiens Taxonomy ID: 9606 Database description The... Article title: Author name(s): Journal: External Links: Original website information Database maintenance s...DB (Protein Data Bank) KEGG PATHWAY Database DrugPort Entry list Available Query search Available Web servic

  14. Using Large Diabetes Databases for Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Sarah; Fischbacher, Colin; McKnight, John

    2016-09-01

    There are an increasing number of clinical, administrative and trial databases that can be used for research. These are particularly valuable if there are opportunities for linkage to other databases. This paper describes examples of the use of large diabetes databases for research. It reviews the advantages and disadvantages of using large diabetes databases for research and suggests solutions for some challenges. Large, high-quality databases offer potential sources of information for research at relatively low cost. Fundamental issues for using databases for research are the completeness of capture of cases within the population and time period of interest and accuracy of the diagnosis of diabetes and outcomes of interest. The extent to which people included in the database are representative should be considered if the database is not population based and there is the intention to extrapolate findings to the wider diabetes population. Information on key variables such as date of diagnosis or duration of diabetes may not be available at all, may be inaccurate or may contain a large amount of missing data. Information on key confounding factors is rarely available for the nondiabetic or general population limiting comparisons with the population of people with diabetes. However comparisons that allow for differences in distribution of important demographic factors may be feasible using data for the whole population or a matched cohort study design. In summary, diabetes databases can be used to address important research questions. Understanding the strengths and limitations of this approach is crucial to interpret the findings appropriately. © 2016 Diabetes Technology Society.

  15. 38 CFR 20.1500 - Rule 1500. Expedited Claims Adjudication Initiative.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Claims Adjudication Initiative. 20.1500 Section 20.1500 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief... Adjudication Initiative-Pilot Program § 20.1500 Rule 1500. Expedited Claims Adjudication Initiative. (a) Purpose. The Expedited Claims Adjudication Initiative is a pilot program designed to streamline the claims...

  16. High-throughput STR analysis for DNA database using direct PCR.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sim, Jeong Eun; Park, Su Jeong; Lee, Han Chul; Kim, Se-Yong; Kim, Jong Yeol; Lee, Seung Hwan

    2013-07-01

    Since the Korean criminal DNA database was launched in 2010, we have focused on establishing an automated DNA database profiling system that analyzes short tandem repeat loci in a high-throughput and cost-effective manner. We established a DNA database profiling system without DNA purification using a direct PCR buffer system. The quality of direct PCR procedures was compared with that of conventional PCR system under their respective optimized conditions. The results revealed not only perfect concordance but also an excellent PCR success rate, good electropherogram quality, and an optimal intra/inter-loci peak height ratio. In particular, the proportion of DNA extraction required due to direct PCR failure could be minimized to <3%. In conclusion, the newly developed direct PCR system can be adopted for automated DNA database profiling systems to replace or supplement conventional PCR system in a time- and cost-saving manner. © 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the U.S.A.

  17. Vertical partitioning of relational OLTP databases using integer programming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Amossen, Rasmus Resen

    2010-01-01

    A way to optimize performance of relational row store databases is to reduce the row widths by vertically partition- ing tables into table fractions in order to minimize the number of irrelevant columns/attributes read by each transaction. This pa- per considers vertical partitioning algorithms...... for relational row- store OLTP databases with an H-store-like architecture, meaning that we would like to maximize the number of single-sited transactions. We present a model for the vertical partitioning problem that, given a schema together with a vertical partitioning and a workload, estimates the costs...... applied to the TPC-C benchmark and the heuristic is shown to obtain solutions with costs close to the ones found using the quadratic program....

  18. Effect of laparoscopic surgery on health care utilization and costs in patients who undergo colectomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawshaw, Benjamin P; Chien, Hung-Lun; Augestad, Knut M; Delaney, Conor P

    2015-05-01

    Laparoscopic colectomy is safe and effective in the treatment of many colorectal diseases. However, the effect of increasing use of laparoscopy on overall health care utilization and costs, especially in the long term, has not been thoroughly investigated. To evaluate the effect of laparoscopic vs open colectomy on short- and long-term health care utilization and costs. Retrospective multivariate regression analysis of national health insurance claims data was used to evaluate health care utilization and costs up to 1 year following elective colectomy. Data were obtained from the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database. Patients aged 18 to 64 years who underwent elective laparoscopic or open colectomy from January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2010, were included. Patients with complex diagnoses that require increased non-surgery-related health care utilization, including malignant neoplasm, inflammatory bowel disease, human immunodeficiency virus, transplantation, and pregnancy, were excluded. Of 25 481 patients who underwent colectomy, 4160 were included in the study. Healthcare utilization, including office, hospital outpatient, and emergency department visits and inpatient services 90 and 365 days after the index procedure; total health care costs; and estimated days off from work owing to health care utilization. Of 25 481 patients who underwent colectomy, 4160 were included in the study (laparoscopic, 45.6%; open, 54.4%). The mean (SD) net and total payments were lower for laparoscopy ($23 064 [$14 558] and $24 196 [$14 507] vs $29 753 [$21 421] and $31 606 [$23 586]). In the first 90 days after surgery, an open approach was significantly associated with a 1.26-fold increase in health care costs (estimated, $1715; 95% CI, $338-$2853), increased use of heath care services, and more estimated days off from work (2.78 days; 95% CI, 1.93-3.59). Similar trends were found in the full postoperative year, with

  19. What Contributes Most to High Health Care Costs? Health Care Spending in High Resource Patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pritchard, Daryl; Petrilla, Allison; Hallinan, Shawn; Taylor, Donald H; Schabert, Vernon F; Dubois, Robert W

    2016-02-01

    U.S. health care spending nearly doubled in the decade from 2000-2010. Although the pace of increase has moderated recently, the rate of growth of health care costs is expected to be higher than the growth in the economy for the near future. Previous studies have estimated that 5% of patients account for half of all health care costs, while the top 1% of spenders account for over 27% of costs. The distribution of health care expenditures by type of service and the prevalence of particular health conditions for these patients is not clear, and is likely to differ from the overall population. To examine health care spending patterns and what contributes to costs for the top 5% of managed health care users based on total expenditures. This retrospective observational study employed a large administrative claims database analysis of health care claims of managed care enrollees across the full age and care spectrum. Direct health care expenditures were compared during calendar year 2011 by place of service (outpatient, inpatient, and pharmacy), payer type (commercially insured, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid managed care), and therapy area between the full population and high resource patients (HRP). The mean total expenditure per HRP during calendar year 2011 was $43,104 versus $3,955 per patient for the full population. Treatment of back disorders and osteoarthritis contributed the largest share of expenditures in both HRP and the full study population, while chronic renal failure, heart disease, and some oncology treatments accounted for disproportionately higher expenditures in HRP. The share of overall expenditures attributed to inpatient services was significantly higher for HRP (40.0%) compared with the full population (24.6%), while the share of expenditures attributed to pharmacy (HRP = 18.1%, full = 21.4%) and outpatient services (HRP = 41.9%, full = 54.1%) was reduced. This pattern was observed across payer type. While the use of physician

  20. Market power and state costs of HIV/AIDS drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leibowitz, Arleen A; Sood, Neeraj

    2007-03-01

    We examine whether U.S. states can use their market power to reduce the costs of supplying prescription drugs to uninsured and underinsured persons with HIV through a public program, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Among states that purchase drugs from manufacturers and distribute them directly to clients, those that purchase a greater volume pay lower average costs per prescription. Among states depending on retail pharmacies to distribute drugs and then claiming rebates from manufacturers, those that contract with smaller numbers of pharmacy networks have lower average costs. Average costs per prescription do not differ between the two purchase methods.

  1. Database Description - SKIP Stemcell Database | LSDB Archive [Life Science Database Archive metadata

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available List Contact us SKIP Stemcell Database Database Description General information of database Database name SKIP Stemcell Database...rsity Journal Search: Contact address http://www.skip.med.keio.ac.jp/en/contact/ Database classification Human Genes and Diseases Dat...abase classification Stemcell Article Organism Taxonomy Name: Homo sapiens Taxonomy ID: 9606 Database...ks: Original website information Database maintenance site Center for Medical Genetics, School of medicine, ...lable Web services Not available URL of Web services - Need for user registration Not available About This Database Database

  2. Decreased Opioid Utilization and Cost at One Year in Chronic Low Back Pain Patients Treated with Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation (TENS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pivec, Robert; Minshall, Michael E; Mistry, Jaydev B; Chughtai, Morad; Elmallah, Randa K; Mont, Michael A

    2015-11-01

    Chronic low back pain (CLBP) may be treated without opioids through the use of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). However, no study has evaluated its clinical effect and economic impact as measured by opioid utilization and costs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate patients who were given TENS for CLBP compared to a matched group without TENS at one-year follow-up, to determine differences between opioid consumption. Opioid utilization and costs in patients who did and did not receive TENS were extracted from a Medicare supplemental administrative claims database. Patients were selected if they had at least two ICD-9-CM coded claims for low back pain in a three-month period and were then propensity score matched at a 1:1 ratio between patients who received TENS and those who did not. There were 22,913 patients in each group who had a minimum follow-up of one year. There were no significant demographic or comorbidity differences with the exception that TENS patients had more episodes of back pain. Significantly fewer patients in the TENS group required opioids at final follow-up (57.7 vs. 60.3%). TENS patients also had significantly fewer annual per-patient opioid costs compared to non-TENS patients ($169 vs. $192). There were significantly lower event rates in TENS patients compared to non-TENS patients when measured by opioid utilization (characterized by frequency of prescription refills) (3.82 vs. 4.08, respectively) or pharmacy utilization (31.67 vs. 32.25). The TENS group also demonstrated a significantly lower cost of these utilization events ($44 vs. $49) and avoided more opioid events (20.4 events fewer per 100 patients annually). Treatment of CLBP with TENS demonstrated significantly fewer patients requiring opioids, fewer events where a patient required an opioid prescription, and lower per-patient costs. Since TENS is both non-invasive and a non-narcotic, it may potentially allow physicians to be more aggressive in treating CLBP

  3. Database Description - Arabidopsis Phenome Database | LSDB Archive [Life Science Database Archive metadata

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available List Contact us Arabidopsis Phenome Database Database Description General information of database Database n... BioResource Center Hiroshi Masuya Database classification Plant databases - Arabidopsis thaliana Organism T...axonomy Name: Arabidopsis thaliana Taxonomy ID: 3702 Database description The Arabidopsis thaliana phenome i...heir effective application. We developed the new Arabidopsis Phenome Database integrating two novel database...seful materials for their experimental research. The other, the “Database of Curated Plant Phenome” focusing

  4. A survey of the adoption and use of target costing in Dutch firms

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dekker, H.C.; smidt, P.E.

    2003-01-01

    This paper reports the results of a survey among Dutch firms listed at the Amsterdam stock exchange on the adoption and use of costing practices that resemble the Japanese target costing concept. Nineteen out of thirty-two manufacturing firms claimed to use these practices, although they used

  5. Do Insurers Have to Pay for Bad Behaviour in Settling Claims? Legal Aspects of Insurers' Wrongful Claims Handling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    W.H. van Boom (Willem)

    2011-01-01

    textabstractAbstract: This article presents a comparative legal analysis of wrongful claims handling by insurance companies in indemnity and liability insurance. From the outset, it is clear that it may be difficult to draw the line between legitimate claims denial and refusal to pay, on the one

  6. Centralized database for interconnection system design. [for spacecraft

    Science.gov (United States)

    Billitti, Joseph W.

    1989-01-01

    A database application called DFACS (Database, Forms and Applications for Cabling and Systems) is described. The objective of DFACS is to improve the speed and accuracy of interconnection system information flow during the design and fabrication stages of a project, while simultaneously supporting both the horizontal (end-to-end wiring) and the vertical (wiring by connector) design stratagems used by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) project engineering community. The DFACS architecture is centered around a centralized database and program methodology which emulates the manual design process hitherto used at JPL. DFACS has been tested and successfully applied to existing JPL hardware tasks with a resulting reduction in schedule time and costs.

  7. 32 CFR 536.122 - Limitation of settlement of maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Limitation of settlement of maritime claims. 536... AND ACCOUNTS CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES Maritime Claims § 536.122 Limitation of settlement of maritime claims. (a) Within the United States the period of completing an administrative settlement under...

  8. No Fat, No Sugar, No Salt . . . No Problem? Prevalence of "Low-Content" Nutrient Claims and Their Associations with the Nutritional Profile of Food and Beverage Purchases in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taillie, Lindsey Smith; Ng, Shu Wen; Xue, Ya; Busey, Emily; Harding, Matthew

    2017-09-01

    Nutrient claims are a commonly used marketing tactic, but the association between claims and nutritional quality of products is unknown. The objective of this study was to examine trends in the proportion of packaged food and beverage purchases with a nutrient claim, whether claims are associated with improved nutritional profile, and whether the proportion of purchases with claims differs by race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status. This cross-sectional study examined nutrient claims on more than 80 million food and beverage purchases from a transaction-level database of 40,000 US households from 2008 to 2012. χ 2 Tests were used to examine whether the proportion of purchases with a low/no-content claim changed over time or differed by race/ethnicity or household socioeconomic status. Pooled transactions were examined using t-tests to compare products' nutritional profiles overall and by food and beverage group. Thirteen percent of food and 35% of beverage purchases had a low-content claim. Prevalence of claims among purchases did not change over time. Low-fat claims were most prevalent for both foods and beverages (10% and 19%, respectively), followed by low-calorie (3% and 9%), low-sugar (2% and 8%), and low-sodium (2% for both) claims. Compared to purchases with no claim, purchases with any low-content claim had lower mean energy, total sugar, total fat, and sodium densities. However, the association between particular claim types and specific nutrient densities varied substantially, and purchases featuring a given low-content claim did not necessarily offer better overall nutritional profiles or better profiles for the claimed nutrient, relative to products without claims. In addition, there was substantial heterogeneity in associations between claims and nutrient densities within food and beverage groups. Variations in nutrient density by claim type and food and beverage group suggests that claims may have differential utility for certain foods or nutrients

  9. 37 CFR 360.15 - Separate claims required.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... SUBMISSION OF ROYALTY CLAIMS FILING OF CLAIMS TO ROYALTY FEES COLLECTED UNDER COMPULSORY LICENSE Satellite... license and satellite carrier compulsory license royalty fees during the same month of July, that party... both cable and satellite carrier royalty fees will be dismissed. ...

  10. Cost-effectiveness of exenatide twice daily vs insulin glargine as add-on therapy to oral antidiabetic agents in patients with type 2 diabetes in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Shuyan; Wang, Xiaoyong; Qiao, Qing; Gao, Weiguo; Wang, Jian; Dong, Hengjin

    2017-12-01

    To estimate the long-term cost-effectiveness of exenatide twice daily vs insulin glargine once daily as add-on therapy to oral antidiabetic agents (OADs) for Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). The Cardiff Diabetes Model was used to simulate disease progression and estimate the long-term effects of exenatide twice daily vs insulin glargine once daily. Patient profiles and treatment effects required for the model were obtained from literature reviews (English and Chinese databases) and from a meta-analysis of 8 randomized controlled trials comparing exenatide twice daily with insulin glargine once daily add-on to OADs for T2DM in China. Medical expenditure data were collected from 639 patients with T2DM (aged ≥18 years) with and without complications incurred between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2015 from claims databases in Shandong, China. Costs (2014 Chinese Yuan [¥]) and benefits were estimated, from the payers' perspective, over 40 years at a discount rate of 3%. A series of sensitivity analyses were performed. Patients on exenatide twice daily + OAD had a lower predicted incidence of most cardiovascular and hypoglycaemic events and lower total costs compared with those on insulin glargine once daily + OAD. A greater number of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs; 1.94) at a cost saving of ¥117 706 gained was associated with exenatide twice daily vs insulin glargine once daily. (i.e. cost saving of ¥60 764/QALY) per patient. In Chinese patients with T2DM inadequately controlled by OADs, exenatide twice daily is a cost-effective add-on therapy alternative to insulin glargine once daily, and may address the problem of an excess of medical needs resulting from weight gain and hypoglycaemia in T2DM treatment. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. 46 CFR 327.4 - Claim requirements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... statements made in the claim are subject to the provision of 18 U.S.C. 287 and 1001 and all other penalty... Admiralty Act, as amended by Public Law 877, 81st Congress (64 Stat. 1112; 46 app. U.S.C. 745), shall not be... physicians and hospitals related to a seaman's claim for injury, illness, or death shall be attached. If the...

  12. 29 CFR 15.26 - Claims procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... forth in § 15.21(d) will be accepted and considered a claim under the Act if it constitutes a demand for compensation from the Department. A demand is not required to be for a specific sum of money. (c) Notification... 29 Labor 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Claims procedures. 15.26 Section 15.26 Labor Office of the...

  13. Maximum potential cost-savings attributable to generic substitution ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    D. Husselmann

    community. ... Conclusions: Potential economic benefits can be generated with generic substitution. ... Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ... supply of safe, cost-effective drugs of acceptable quality to all citizens of South Africa, and the rational use of drugs by .... different types of schizophrenic diagnosis) with a claim.

  14. Public sector cost management practices in The Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verbeeten, Frank H.m.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose – The purpose of this research project is to validate the claim that recent developments in the public sector have increased the demand for and use of cost management information in public sector organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is a survey of financial

  15. Primary care closed claims experience of Massachusetts malpractice insurers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiff, Gordon D; Puopolo, Ann Louise; Huben-Kearney, Anne; Yu, Winnie; Keohane, Carol; McDonough, Peggy; Ellis, Bonnie R; Bates, David W; Biondolillo, Madeleine

    Despite prior focus on high-impact inpatient cases, there are increasing data and awareness that malpractice in the outpatient setting, particularly in primary care, is a leading contributor to malpractice risk and claims. To study patterns of primary care malpractice types, causes, and outcomes as part of a Massachusetts ambulatory malpractice risk and safety improvement project. Retrospective review of pooled closed claims data of 2 malpractice carriers covering most Massachusetts physicians during a 5-year period (January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2009). Data were harmonized between the 2 insurers using a standardized taxonomy. Primary care practices in Massachusetts. All malpractice claims that involved primary care practices insured by the 2 largest insurers in the state were screened. A total of 551 claims from primary care practices were identified for the analysis. Numbers and types of claims, including whether claims involved primary care physicians or practices; classification of alleged malpractice (eg, misdiagnosis or medication error); patient diagnosis; breakdown in care process; and claim outcome (dismissed, settled, verdict for plaintiff, or verdict for defendant). During a 5-year period there were 7224 malpractice claims of which 551 (7.7%) were from primary care practices. Allegations were related to diagnosis in 397 (72.1%), medications in 68 (12.3%), other medical treatment in 41 (7.4%), communication in 15 (2.7%), patient rights in 11 (2.0%), and patient safety or security in 8 (1.5%). Leading diagnoses were cancer (n = 190), heart diseases (n = 43), blood vessel diseases (n = 27), infections (n = 22), and stroke (n = 16). Primary care cases were significantly more likely to be settled (35.2% vs 20.5%) or result in a verdict for the plaintiff (1.6% vs 0.9%) compared with non-general medical malpractice claims (P < .001). In Massachusetts, most primary care claims filed are related to alleged misdiagnosis. Compared with malpractice

  16. Community pharmacy and mail order cost and utilization for 90-day maintenance medication prescriptions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khandelwal, Nikhil; Duncan, Ian; Rubinstein, Elan; Ahmed, Tamim; Pegus, Cheryl

    2012-04-01

    Pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies promote mail order programs that typically dispense 90-day quantities of maintenance medications, marketing this feature as a key cost containment strategy to address plan sponsors' rising prescription drug expenditures. In recent years, community pharmacies have introduced 90-day programs that provide similar cost advantages, while allowing these prescriptions to be dispensed at the same pharmacies that patients frequent for 30-day quantities. To compare utilization rates and corresponding costs associated with obtaining 90-day prescriptions at community and mail order pharmacies for payers that offer equivalent benefits in different 90-day dispensing channels. We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional investigation using pharmacy claims and eligibility data from employer group clients of a large PBM between January 2008 and September 2010. We excluded the following client types: government, third-party administrators, schools, hospitals, 340B (federal drug pricing), employers in Puerto Rico, and miscellaneous clients for which the PBM provided billing services (e.g., the pharmacy's loyalty card program members). All employer groups in the sample offered 90-day community pharmacy and mail order dispensing and received benefits management services, such as formulary management and mail order pharmacy, from the PBM. We further limited the sample to employer groups that offered equivalent benefits for community pharmacy and mail order, defined as groups in which the mean and median copayments per claim for community and mail order pharmacy, by tier, differed by no more than 5%. Enrollees in the sample were required to have a minimum of 6 months of eligibility in each calendar year but were not required to have filled a prescription in any year. We evaluated pharmacy costs and utilization for a market basket of 14 frequently dispensed therapeutic classes of maintenance medications. The proportional share of claims for

  17. Incremental cost of PACS in a medical intensive care unit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langlotz, Curtis P.; Cleff, Bridget; Even-Shoshan, Orit; Bozzo, Mary T.; Redfern, Regina O.; Brikman, Inna; Seshadri, Sridhar B.; Horii, Steven C.; Kundel, Harold L.

    1995-05-01

    Our purpose is to determine the incremental costs (or savings) due to the introduction of picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and computed radiology (CR) in a medical intensive care unit (MICU). Our economic analysis consists of three measurement methods. The first method is an assessment of the direct costs to the radiology department, implemented in a spreadsheet model. The second method consists of a series of brief observational studies to measure potential changes in personnel costs that might not be reflected in administrative claims. The third method (results not reported here) is a multivariate modeling technique which estimates the independent effect of PACS/CR on the cost of care (estimated from administrative claims data), while controlling for clinical case- mix variables. Our direct cost model shows no cost savings to the radiology department after the introduction of PACS in the medical intensive care unit. Savings in film supplies and film library personnel are offset by increases in capital equipment costs and PACS operation personnel. The results of observational studies to date demonstrate significant savings in clinician film-search time, but no significant change in technologist time or lost films. Our model suggests that direct radiology costs will increase after the limited introduction of PACS/CR in the MICU. Our observational studies show a small but significant effect on clinician film search time by the introduction of PACS/CR in the MICU, but no significant effect on other variables. The projected costs of a hospital-wide PACS are currently under study.

  18. The implications of regional and national demographic projections for future GMS costs in Ireland through to 2026.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Conway, Aisling

    2014-10-21

    As the health services in Ireland have become more resource-constrained, pressure has increased to reduce public spending on community drug schemes such as General Medical Services (GMS) drug prescribing and to understand current and future trends in prescribing. The GMS scheme covers approximately 37% of the Irish population in 2011 and entitles them, inter alia, to free prescription drugs and appliances. This paper projects the effects of future changes in population, coverage, claims rates and average claims cost on GMS costs in Ireland.

  19. Work ability, effort-reward imbalance and disability pension claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wienert, J; Spanier, K; Radoschewski, F M; Bethge, M

    2017-12-30

    Effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and self-rated work ability are known independent correlates and predictors of intended disability pension claims. However, little research has focused on the interrelationship between the three and whether self-rated work ability mediates the relationship between ERI and intended disability pension claims. To investigate whether self-rated work ability mediates the association between ERI and intended disability pension claims. Baseline data from participants of the Third German Sociomedical Panel of Employees, a 5-year cohort study that investigates determinants of work ability, rehabilitation utilization and disability pensions in employees who have previously received sickness benefits, were analysed. We tested direct associations between ERI with intended disability pension claims (Model 1) and self-rated work ability (Model 2). Additionally, we tested whether work ability mediates the association between ERI and intended disability pension claims (Model 3). There were 2585 participants. Model 1 indicated a significant association between ERI and intended disability pension claims. Model 2 showed a significant association between ERI and self-rated work ability. The mediation in Model 3 revealed a significant indirect association between ERI and intended disability pension claims via self-rated work ability. There was no significant direct association between ERI and intended disability pension claims. Our results support the adverse health-related impact of ERI on self-rated work ability and intended disability pension claims. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  20. Medical resource utilization and costs associated with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease in the USA: a retrospective matched cohort analysis of private insurer data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knight, Tyler; Schaefer, Caroline; Krasa, Holly; Oberdhan, Dorothee; Chapman, Arlene; Perrone, Ronald D

    2015-01-01

    Background Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) results in kidney cyst development and enlargement, resulting in chronic kidney disease (CKD) leading to renal failure. This study sought to determine if ADPKD patients in the early stages of CKD contribute to a sizable economic burden for the US health care system. Methods This was a retrospective, matched cohort study, reviewing medical resource utilization (MRU) and costs for adults in a US private-payer claims database with a diagnosis code of ADPKD (ICD-9-CM 753.13). ADPKD patients were matched by age grouping (0–17, 18–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, and 65+ years) and sex to controls to understand the burden of ADPKD. Descriptive statistics on 6-month MRU and costs were assessed by CKD stages, dialysis use, or previous renal transplant. Results The analysis included ADPKD patients in CKD stages 1–5 (n=316 to n=860), dialysis (n=586), and post-transplant (n=615). Mean ages did not differ across CKD stages (range 43–56 years). Men were the majority in the later stages but the minority in the early stages. The proportion of patients with at least one hospitalization increased with CKD stage, (12% to >40% CKD stage 2 to stage 5, dialysis or post-transplant). The majority had at least one hospital outpatient visit and at least one pharmacy claim. Total 6-month per-patient costs were greater among ADPKD patients than in age-matched and sex-matched healthy non-ADPKD controls (P<0.001 for all comparisons). Conclusion ADPKD patients with normal kidney function are associated with a significant economic burden to the health care system relative to the general population. Any treatments that delay progression to later stages of CKD may provide potential health care cost offsets. PMID:25759590

  1. The cost and distribution of firefighter injuries in a large Canadian Fire Department.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frost, D M; Beach, T A C; Crosby, I; McGill, S M

    2016-11-22

    There is limited data available regarding the cost of firefighter injuries. This information is necessary to develop targeted injury prevention strategies. To categorize the cost of injuries filed in 2012 by firefighters from a from a large department by job duty, injury type, body part affected, and the general motion pattern employed at the time of injury. Data were taken from reports filed by CFD personnel and claims filed with the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of Alberta between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012. Of the 244 injuries reported, 65% were categorized as sprains and strains, the most frequent of which affected the back (32%). The total cost of all claims was $555,955; 77% were sprain/strain-related. Knee and back injuries were most costly ($157,383 and $100,459). Categorized by job duty, most sprains/strains (31%) were sustained while attending to fire station responsibilities, although physical training was associated with the highest costs (34%). Fireground operations were attributed to 18% of sprains/strains and 16% of costs. Lifting injuries were more frequent (23%) and costly (20%) than all injuries. The most common and costly injuries occurred while attending to fire station-related responsibilities and during physical training.

  2. The Indirect Empathic Approach to Claim Letters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, James D.

    1985-01-01

    In discussing letter-writing methods for business communication classes, the article explains that claim letter formats other than the direct approach are not only legitimate, but also effective, and suggests that the approach selected should depend upon the circumstances surrounding the claim. (CT)

  3. Harmonization of Databases

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Charlifue, Susan; Tate, Denise; Biering-Sorensen, Fin

    2016-01-01

    strengths and weaknesses. Efforts to provide a uniform approach to data collection are also reviewed. The databases reviewed offer different approaches to capture important clinical information on SCI. They vary on size, purpose, data points, inclusion of standard outcomes, and technical requirements. Each...... a carefully crafted implementation plan that lists purposes, cost, resources required, and policies to guide such development to establishing a framework for dissemination of data and findings. For the present, taking advantage of the vast but different data already collected over many decades may require...

  4. Open Geoscience Database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bashev, A.

    2012-04-01

    Currently there is an enormous amount of various geoscience databases. Unfortunately the only users of the majority of the databases are their elaborators. There are several reasons for that: incompaitability, specificity of tasks and objects and so on. However the main obstacles for wide usage of geoscience databases are complexity for elaborators and complication for users. The complexity of architecture leads to high costs that block the public access. The complication prevents users from understanding when and how to use the database. Only databases, associated with GoogleMaps don't have these drawbacks, but they could be hardly named "geoscience" Nevertheless, open and simple geoscience database is necessary at least for educational purposes (see our abstract for ESSI20/EOS12). We developed a database and web interface to work with them and now it is accessible at maps.sch192.ru. In this database a result is a value of a parameter (no matter which) in a station with a certain position, associated with metadata: the date when the result was obtained; the type of a station (lake, soil etc); the contributor that sent the result. Each contributor has its own profile, that allows to estimate the reliability of the data. The results can be represented on GoogleMaps space image as a point in a certain position, coloured according to the value of the parameter. There are default colour scales and each registered user can create the own scale. The results can be also extracted in *.csv file. For both types of representation one could select the data by date, object type, parameter type, area and contributor. The data are uploaded in *.csv format: Name of the station; Lattitude(dd.dddddd); Longitude(ddd.dddddd); Station type; Parameter type; Parameter value; Date(yyyy-mm-dd). The contributor is recognised while entering. This is the minimal set of features that is required to connect a value of a parameter with a position and see the results. All the complicated data

  5. 38 CFR 14.616 - Form and place of filing claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... applicable to the claim. (b) Place of filing claim. Claims arising in the Philippines under 38 U.S.C. 515(b... the Philippines. Claims arising in other foreign countries will be filed with the American Embassy or... documents in other than the English language will be accompanied by English translations. (2) Personal...

  6. 32 CFR 537.1 - Statutory authority for non-maritime claims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Statutory authority for non-maritime claims. 537.1 Section 537.1 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS CLAIMS ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES § 537.1 Statutory authority for non-maritime claims. (a) The...

  7. The cost of wetland creation and restoration. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    King, D.; Bohlen, C.

    1995-08-01

    This report examines the economics of wetland creation, restoration, and enhancement projects, especially as they are used within the context of mitigation for unavoidable wetland losses. Complete engineering-cost-accounting profiles of over 90 wetland projects were developed in collaboration with leading wetland restoration and creation practitioners around the country to develop a primary source database. Data on the costs of over 1,000 wetland projects were gathered from published sources and other available databases to develop a secondary source database. Cases in both databases were carefully analyzed and a set of baseline cost per acre estimates were developed for wetland creation, restoration, and enhancement. Observations of costs varied widely, ranging from $5 per acre to $1.5 million per acre. Differences in cost were related to the target wetland type, and to site-specific and project-specific factors that affected the preconstruction, construction, and post-construction tasks necessary to carry out each particular project. Project-specific and site-specific factors had a much larger effect on project costs than wetland type for non-agricultural projects. Costs of wetland creation and restoration were also shown to differ by region, but not by as much as expected, and in response to the regulatory context. The costs of wetland creation, restoration, and enhancement were also analyzed in a broader economic context through examination of the market for wetland mitigation services, and through the development of a framework for estimating compensation ratios-the number of acres of created, restored, or enhanced wetland required to compensate for an acre of lost natural wetland. The combination of per acre creation, restoration, and enhancement costs and the compensation ratio determine the overall mitigation costs associated with alternative mitigation strategies.

  8. 45 CFR 95.705 - Equipment costs-Federal financial participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Equipment costs-Federal financial participation... INSURANCE PROGRAMS) Equipment Acquired Under Public Assistance Programs § 95.705 Equipment costs—Federal financial participation. (a) General rule. In computing claims for Federal financial participation...

  9. United States comparative costs and absenteeism of diabetic ophthalmic conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brook, Richard A; Kleinman, Nathan L; Patel, Sunil; Smeeding, Jim E; Beren, Ian A; Turpcu, Adam

    2015-06-01

    This retrospective cohort study examined the impact of diabetic macular edema (DME), diabetic retinopathy (DR), or diabetes on annual health benefit costs and absenteeism in US employees. Claims data from 2001 to 2012 was extracted from the Human Capital Management Services Group Research Reference Database on annual direct/indirect health benefit costs and absences for employees aged ≥ 18 years. Employees with DME, DR, or diabetes were identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. Employees were divided into two groups, drivers or nondrivers, and examined in separate analyses. For drivers and nondrivers, the DME, DR, and diabetes cohorts were compared with their respective control groups (without diabetes). Two-part regression models controlled for demographics and job-related characteristics. A total of 39,702 driver and 426,549 nondriver employees were identified as having ≥ 1 year's continuous health plan enrollment. Direct medical costs for drivers with DME, DR, or diabetes were $6470, $8021, and $5102, respectively (>2.8 times higher and statistically significant compared with driver controls). Nondrivers with DME and DR incurred significantly higher sick leave and short-term disability costs compared with the nondrivers with diabetes and nondriver controls. In drivers with DME, the majority of days of absence were for short- and long-term disability (12.41 and 11.43 days, respectively). In drivers with DR, the majority of days of absence were for short-term disability (10.70 days). In nondrivers with DME and nondrivers with DR, the majority of days of absence were for sick leave (5.74 and 4.93 days, respectively) and short-term disability (5.08 and 4.93 days, respectively). DME and DR are associated with substantial direct medical cost and absenteeism in this real-world sample of medically insured employees. This research highlights the negative impact of DME and DR on annual costs and absenteeism

  10. 5 CFR 177.102 - Administrative claim; when presented; appropriate OPM office.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... SERVICE REGULATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS UNDER THE FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT § 177.102 Administrative claim... have occurred as a result of the incident. (b) All claims filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act as a result of the alleged negligence or wrongdoing of OPM or its employees will be mailed or delivered to the...

  11. Exaggerated Claims for Interactive Stories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thue, David; Bulitko, Vadim; Spetch, Marcia; Webb, Michael

    As advertising becomes more crucial to video games' success, developers risk promoting their products beyond the features that they can actually include. For features of interactive storytelling, the effects of making such exaggerations are not well known, as reports from industry have been anecdotal at best. In this paper, we explore the effects of making exaggerated claims for interactive stories, in the context of the theory of advertising. Results from a human user study show that female players find linear and branching stories to be significantly less enjoyable when they are advertised with exaggerated claims.

  12. An evaluation of the impact of patient cost sharing for antihypertensive medications on adherence, medication and health care utilization, and expenditures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pesa JA

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Jacqueline A Pesa1, Jill Van Den Bos2, Travis Gray2, Colleen Hartsig2, Robert Brett McQueen3, Joseph J Saseen3, Kavita V Nair31Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC, Louisville, CO, USA; 2Milliman, Inc, Denver, CO, USA; 3University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USAObjective: To assess the impact of patient cost-sharing for antihypertensive medications on the proportion of days covered (PDC by antihypertensive medications, medical utilization, and health care expenditures among commercially insured individuals assigned to different risk categories.Methods: Participants were identified from the Consolidated Health Cost Guidelines (CHCG database (January 1, 2006–December 31, 2008 based on a diagnosis (index claim for hypertension, continuous enrollment ≥12 months pre- and post-index, and no prior claims for antihypertensive medications. Participants were assigned to: low-risk group (no comorbidities, high-risk group (1+ selected comorbidities, or very high-risk group (prior hospitalization for 1+ selected comorbidities. The relationship between patient cost sharing and PDC by antihypertensive medications was assessed using standard linear regression models, controlling for risk group membership, and various demographic and clinical factors. The relationship between PDC and health care service utilization was subsequently examined using negative binomial regression models.Results: Of the 28,688 study patients, 66% were low risk. The multivariate regression model supported a relationship between patient cost sharing per 30-day fill and PDC in the following year. For every US$1.00 increase in cost sharing, PDC decreased by 1.1 days (P < 0.0001. Significant predictors of PDC included high risk, older age, gender, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, geography, and total post-index insurer- and patient-paid costs. An increase in PDC was associated with a decrease in all-cause and hypertension-related inpatient, outpatient, and emergency

  13. Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence and Cost-Saving Behaviors Among Patients With Glaucoma Before and After the Implementation of Medicare Part D.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blumberg, Dana M; Prager, Alisa J; Liebmann, Jeffrey M; Cioffi, George A; De Moraes, C Gustavo

    2015-09-01

    Understanding factors that lead to nonadherence to glaucoma treatment is important to diminish glaucoma-related disability. To determine whether the implementation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit affected rates of cost-related nonadherence and cost-reduction strategies in Medicare beneficiaries with and without glaucoma and to evaluate associated risk factors for such nonadherence. Serial cross-sectional study using 2004 to 2009 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data linked with Medicare claims. Coding to extract data started in January 2014 and analyses were performed between September and November of 2014. Participants were all Medicare beneficiaries, including those with a glaucoma-related diagnosis in the year prior to the collection of the survey data, those with a nonglaucomatous ophthalmic diagnosis in the year prior to the collection of the survey data, and those without a recent eye care professional claim. Effect of the implementation of the Medicare Part D drug benefit. The change in cost-related nonadherence and the change in cost-reduction strategies. Between 2004 and 2009, the number of Medicare beneficiaries with glaucoma who reported taking smaller doses and skipping doses owing to cost dropped from 9.4% and 8.2% to 2.7% (P cost did not improve in the same period (3.4% in 2004 and 2.1% in 2009; P = .12). After Part D, patients with glaucoma had a decrease in several cost-reduction strategies, namely price shopping (26.2%-15.2%; P cost-related nonadherence measures were female sex, younger age, lower income (implementation of Part D, there was a decrease in the rate that beneficiaries with glaucoma reported engaging in cost-saving measures. Although there was a decline in the rate of several cost-related nonadherence behaviors, patients reporting failure to fill prescriptions owing to cost remained stable. This suggests that efforts to improve cost-related nonadherence should focus both on financial hardship and medical

  14. X-1 to X-Wings: Developing a Parametric Cost Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sterk, Steve; McAtee, Aaron

    2015-01-01

    In todays cost-constrained environment, NASA needs an X-Plane database and parametric cost model that can quickly provide rough order of magnitude predictions of cost from initial concept to first fight of potential X-Plane aircraft. This paper takes a look at the steps taken in developing such a model and reports the results. The challenges encountered in the collection of historical data and recommendations for future database management are discussed. A step-by-step discussion of the development of Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) is then covered.

  15. Everyday Citizenship: Identity Claims and Their Reception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nick Hopkins

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Citizenship involves being able to speak and be heard as a member of the community. This can be a formal right (e.g., a right to vote. It can also be something experienced in everyday life. However, the criteria for being judged a fellow member of the community are multiple and accorded different weights by different people. Thus, although one may self-define alongside one’s fellows, the degree to which these others reciprocate depends on the weight they give to various membership criteria. This suggests we approach everyday community membership in terms of an identity claims-making process in which first, an individual claims membership through invoking certain criteria of belonging, and second, others evaluate that claim. Pursuing this logic we report three experiments investigating the reception of such identity-claims. Study 1 showed that in Scotland a claim to membership of the national ingroup was accepted more if couched in terms of place of birth and ancestry rather than just in terms of one’s subjective identification. Studies 2 and 3 showed that this differential acceptance mattered for the claimant’s ability to be heard as a community member. We discuss the implications of these studies for the conceptualization of community membership and the realization of everyday citizenship rights.

  16. SSA Disability Claim Data

    Data.gov (United States)

    Social Security Administration — The dataset includes fiscal year data for initial claims for SSA disability benefits that were referred to a state agency for a disability determination. Specific...

  17. Effect of health insurance on direct hospitalisation costs for in-patients with ischaemic stroke in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yong, Ma; Xianjun, Xiong; Jinghu, Li; Yunyun, Fang

    2018-02-01

    Objectives The aim of the present study was to determine the direct medical costs of hospitalisations for ischaemic stroke (IS) in-patients with different types of health insurance in China and to analyse the demographic characteristics of hospitalised patients, based on data supplied by the China Health Insurance Research Association (CHIRA). Methods A nationwide and cross-sectional sample of IS in-patients with International Classifications of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) Code I63 who were ensured under either the Basic Medical Insurance Scheme for Employees (BMISE) or the Basic Medical Insurance Scheme for Urban Residents (BMISUR) was extracted from the CHIRA claims database. A retrospective analysis was used with regard to patient demographics, total hospital charges and costs. Results Of the 49588 hospitalised patients who had been diagnosed with IS in the CHIRA claims database, 28850 (58.2%) were men (mean age 67.34 years) and 20738 (41.8%) were women (mean age 69.75 years). Of all patients, 40347 (81.4%) were insured by the BMISE, whereas 8724 (17.6%) were insured by the BMISUR; the mean age of these groups was 68.55 and 67.62 years respectively. For BMISE-insured in-patients, the cost per hospitalisation was RMB10131 (95% confidence interval (CI) 10014-10258), the cost per hospital day was RMB787 (95% CI 766-808), the out-of-pocket costs per patient were RMB2346 (95% CI 2303-2388) and the reimbursement rate was 74.61% (95% CI 74.48-74.73%). For BMISUR-insured in-patients the cost per hospitalisation was RMB7662 (95% CI 7473-7852), the cost per hospital day was RMB744 (95% CI 706-781), the out-of-pocket costs per patient were RMB3356 (95% CI 3258-3454) and the reimbursement rate was 56.46% (95% CI 56.08-56.84%). Conclusions Costs per hospitalisation, costs per hospital day and the reimbursement rate were higher for BMISE- than BMISUR-insured in-patients, but BMISE-insured patients had lower out-of-pocket costs. The financial burden was higher for BMISUR

  18. The Novice User and CD-ROM Database Services. ERIC Digest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schamber, Linda

    This digest answers the following questions that beginning or novice users may have about CD-ROM (a compact disk with read-only memory) database services: (1) What is CD-ROM? (2) What databases are available? (3) Is CD-ROM difficult to use? (4) How much does CD-ROM cost? and (5) What is the future of CD-ROM? (15 references) (MES)

  19. 32 CFR 842.46 - Who may file a claim.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... authorized agents may file claims for personal injury. (c) Duly appointed guardians of minor children or any other persons legally entitled to do so under applicable local law may file claims for minors' personal... action surviving an individual's death. (e) Insurers with subrogation rights may file claims for losses...

  20. Access database application in medical treatment management platform

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Qingming

    2014-01-01

    For timely, accurate and flexible access to medical expenses data, we applied Microsoft Access 2003 database management software, and we finished the establishment of a management platform for medical expenses. By developing management platform for medical expenses, overall hospital costs for medical expenses can be controlled to achieve a real-time monitoring of medical expenses. Using the Access database management platform for medical expenses not only changes the management model, but also promotes a sound management system for medical expenses. (authors)