Project Baby Bear: Rapid precision care incorporating rWGS in 5 California children's hospitals demonstrates improved clinical outcomes and reduced costs of care.

Genetic disorders are a leading contributor to mortality in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units (ICUs). Rapid whole-genome sequencing (rWGS)-based rapid precision medicine (RPM) is an intervention that has demonstrated improved clinical outcomes and reduced costs of care. However, the feasibility of broad clinical deployment has not been established. The objective of this study was to implement RPM based on rWGS and evaluate the clinical and economic impact of this implementation as a first line diagnostic test in the California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) program. Project Baby Bear was a payor funded, prospective, real-world quality improvement project in the regional ICUs of five tertiary care children's hospitals. Participation was limited to acutely ill Medi-Cal beneficiaries who were admitted November 2018 to May 2020, were <1 year old and within one week of hospitalization, or had just developed an abnormal response to therapy. The whole cohort received RPM. There were two prespecified primary outcomes-changes in medical care reported by physicians and changes in the cost of care. The majority of infants were from underserved populations. Of 184 infants enrolled, 74 (40%) received a diagnosis by rWGS that explained their admission in a median time of 3 days. In 58 (32%) affected individuals, rWGS led to changes in medical care. Testing and precision medicine cost $1.7 million and led to $2.2-2.9 million cost savings. rWGS-based RPM had clinical utility and reduced net health care expenditures for infants in regional ICUs. rWGS should be considered early in ICU admission when the underlying etiology is unclear.

Differences in the volume of services and in prices drive big variations in Medicaid spending among US states and regions.

It is well known that Medicaid spending per beneficiary varies widely across states. However, less is known about the cause of this variation, or about whether increased spending is associated with better outcomes. In this article we describe and analyze sources of interstate variation in Medicaid spending over several years. We find substantial variations both in the volume of services and in prices. Overall, per capita spending in the ten highest-spending states was $1,650 above the average national per capita spending, of which $1,186, or 72 percent, was due to the volume of services delivered. Spending in the ten lowest-spending states was $1,161 below the national average, of which $672, or 58 percent, was due to volume. In the mid-Atlantic region, increased price and volume resulted in the most expensive care among regions, whereas reduced price and volume in the South Central region resulted in the least expensive care among regions. Understanding these variations in greater detail should help improve the quality and efficiency of care-a task that will become more important as Medicaid is greatly expanded under the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Impact of individual-, environmental-, and policy-level factors on health care utilization among US farmworkers.

OBJECTIVES: We examined individual-, environmental-, and policy-level correlates of US farmworker health care utilization, guided by the behavioral model for vulnerable populations and the ecological model. METHODS: The 2006 and 2007 administrations of the National Agricultural Workers Survey (n = 2884) provided the primary data. Geographic information systems, the 2005 Uniform Data System, and rurality and border proximity indices provided environmental variables. To identify factors associated with health care use, we performed logistic regression using weighted hierarchical linear modeling. RESULTS: Approximately half (55.3%) of farmworkers utilized US health care in the previous 2 years. Several factors were independently associated with use at the individual level (gender, immigration and migrant status, English proficiency, transportation access, health status, and non-US health care utilization), the environmental level (proximity to US-Mexico border), and the policy level (insurance status and workplace payment structure). County Federally Qualified Health Center resources were not independently associated. CONCLUSIONS: We identified farmworkers at greatest risk for poor access. We made recommendations for change to farmworker health care access at all 3 levels of influence, emphasizing Federally Qualified Health Center service delivery.

Peering into the black box: billing and insurance activities in a medical group.

Billing and insurance-related functions have been reported to consume 14 percent of medical group revenue, but little is known about the costs associated with performing specific activities. We conducted semistructured interviews, observed work flows, analyzed department budgets, and surveyed clinicians to evaluate these activities at a large multispecialty medical group. We identified 0.67 nonclinical full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff working on billing and insurance functions per FTE physician. In addition, clinicians spent more than thirty-five minutes per day performing these tasks. The cost to medical groups, including clinicians' time, was at least $85,276 per FTE physician (10 percent of revenue).

Hard times and health insurance: how many Americans will be uninsured by 2010?

In earlier work we demonstrated that increases in the cost of health care accounted for the decline in insurance coverage from 1979 to 2002. Here we examine whether our model adequately accounts for observed changes in coverage though 2007, and we provide an estimate of the effects of the recession on the number of uninsured Americans through 2010. We project that the number will increase by at least 6.9 million. The estimate does not directly take into account the additional effects of job losses, which are likely to add millions more to the number of uninsured Americans.

Marital status and longevity in the United States population.

PURPOSE: To investigate the relation between marital status and survival. DATA SOURCES: The US 1989 national health interview survey (NHIS) merged with the 1997 US national death index. RESULTS: Among 1989 NHIS respondents, 5876 (8.77%) died before 1997 and 61 123 (91.23%) were known to be alive. Controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, the death rate for people who were unmarried was significantly higher than it was for those who were married and living with their spouses. Although the effect was significant for all categories of unmarried, it was strongest for those who had never married. The never married effect was seen for both sexes, and was significantly stronger for men than for women. For the youngest age group (19-44), the predominant causes of early death among adults who had never married were infectious disease (presumably HIV) and external causes. In the middle aged and older men and women, the predominant causes were cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. CONCLUSION: Current marriage is associated with longer survival. Among the not married categories, having never been married was the strongest predictor of premature mortality. It is difficult to assess the causal effect of marital status from these observational data.