Inpatient Physician Services Research Articles

A Randomized Trial of Voice-Generated Inpatient Progress Notes: Effects on Professional Fee Billing.

Prior evaluations of automated speech recognition (ASR) to create hospital progress notes have not analyzed its effect on professional revenue billing codes. As ASR becomes a more common method of entering clinical notes, clinicians, hospital administrators, and payers should understand whether this technology alters charges associated with inpatient physician services. This study aimed to measure the difference in professional fee charges between using voice and keyboard to create inpatient progress notes. In a randomized trial of a novel voice with ASR system, called voice-generated enhanced electronic note system (VGEENS), to generate physician notes, we compared 1,613 notes created using intervention (VGEENS) or control (keyboard with template) created by 31 physicians. We measured three outcomes, as follows: (1) professional fee billing levels assigned by blinded coders, (2) number of elements within each note domain, and (3) frequency of organ system evaluations documented in review of systems (ROS) and physical exam. Participants using VGEENS generated a greater portion of high-level (99233) notes than control users (31.8 vs. 24.3%, p < 0.01). After adjustment for clustering by author, the finding persisted; intervention notes were 1.43 times more likely (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-1.79) to receive a high-level code. Notes created using voice contained an average of 1.34 more history of present illness components (95% CI: 0.14-2.54) and 1.62 more review of systems components (95% CI: 0.48-2.76). The number of physical exam components was unchanged. Using this voice with ASR system as tested slightly increases documentation of patient symptom details without reliance on copy and paste and may raise physician charges. Increased provider reimbursement may encourage hospital and provider group to offer use of voice and ASR to create hospital progress notes as an alternative to usual methods.

Interdependence in decision-making by medical consultants: implications for improving the efficiency of inpatient physician services

ABSTRACTObjectives: Hospital administrators are seeking to improve efficiency in medical consultation services, yet whether consultants make decisions to provide more or less care is unknown. We examined how medical consultants account for prior consultants’ care when determining whether to provide intensive consulting care or sign off in the treatment of complex surgical inpatients. We applied three distinct theoretical frameworks in the interpretation of our results.Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of consultants’ care intensity, measured alternately using a dummy variable for providing two or more days consulting (versus one) and a continuous measure of total days consulting, with 100% Medicare claims data from 2007–2010. Our analytic samples included consults for beneficiaries undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (n = 61,785) or colectomy (n = 33,460) in general acute care hospitals. We compared the care intensity of consultants who observed different patterns of consulting care before their initial consults using ordinary least squares regression models at the patient-physician dyad level, controlling for patient comorbidity and many other patient- and physician-level factors as well as hospital region and year fixed effects.Results: Consultants were less likely to provide intensive consulting care with each additional prior consultant on the case (1.2–1.7 percent) or if a prior consultant rendered intensive consulting care (20.6–21.5 percent) but more likely when prior consults were more concentrated across consultants (2.9–3.1 percent). Effects on consultants’ total days consulting were similar.Conclusion: On average, consultants appeared to calibrate their care intensity for individual patients to maximize their value to all patients. Interventions for improving consulting care efficiency should seek to facilitate (not constrain) consultants’ decision-making processes.

Implementation of Medicare Part D and Nondrug Medical Spending for Elderly Adults With Limited Prior Drug Coverage

Implementation of Medicare Part D was followed by increased use of prescription medications, reduced out-of-pocket costs, and improved medication adherence. Its effects on nondrug medical spending remain unclear. To assess differential changes in nondrug medical spending following the implementation of Part D for traditional Medicare beneficiaries with limited prior drug coverage. Nationally representative longitudinal survey data and linked Medicare claims from 2004-2007 were used to compare nondrug medical spending before and after the implementation of Part D by self-reported generosity of prescription drug coverage before 2006. Participants included 6001 elderly Medicare beneficiaries from the Health and Retirement Study, including 2538 with generous and 3463 with limited drug coverage before 2006. Comparisons were adjusted for sociodemographic and health characteristics and checked for residual confounding by conducting similar comparisons for a control cohort from 2002-2005. Nondrug medical spending assessed from claims, in total and by type of service (inpatient and skilled nursing facility vs physician services). Total nondrug medical spending was differentially reduced after January 1, 2006, for beneficiaries with limited prior drug coverage (-$306/quarter [95% confidence interval {CI}, -$586 to -$51]; P = .02), relative to beneficiaries with generous prior drug coverage. This differential reduction was explained mostly by differential changes in spending on inpatient and skilled nursing facility care (-$204/quarter [95% CI, -$447 to $2]; P = .05). Differential reductions in spending on physician services (-$67/quarter [95% CI, -$134 to -$5]; P = .03) were not associated with differential changes in outpatient visits (-0.06 visits/quarter [95% CI, -0.21 to 0.08]; P = .37), suggesting reduced spending on inpatient physician services for beneficiaries with limited prior drug coverage. In contrast, nondrug medical spending in the control cohort did not differentially change after January 1, 2004, for beneficiaries with limited prior drug coverage in 2002 ($14/quarter [95% CI, -$338 to $324]; P = .93), relative to beneficiaries with generous prior coverage. Implementation of Part D was associated with significant differential reductions in nondrug medical spending for Medicare beneficiaries with limited prior drug coverage.

Risperidone, Haloperidol and Clozapine in the South Carolina Medicaid Program

Objective: To determine whether the increased acquisition costs associated with the atypical antipsychotic risperidone are offset by reductions in other mental health care utilisation and expenditure. Design and setting: The study was population-based and used South Carolina Medicaid claims data to determine changes in mental healthcare utilisation and expenditures related to schizophrenia. Changes in mental health—related utilisation and expenditures over time were calculated; total mental health—related expenditures and utilisation were disaggregated into pharmaceuticals, inpatient hospitalisations, and ambulatory and inpatient physician services [Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) 1500 claims]. Groups of patients were compared for two 6-month periods preceding the initial prescription (pre1 and pre2), and two 6-month periods following the initial prescription (post1 and post2). Costs were discounted to the index date. Perspective: Payor (South Carolina Medicaid). Patients: Those patients with schizophrenia who received initial prescriptions for risperidone (n = 862), haloperidol (n = 325) or clozapine (n = 66) between February 1994 and June 1995 (index date). Main outcome measures and results: The mean increase in level of expenditure per person for pharmaceuticals from the pre- to the post-treatment period was significantly greater in the risperidone [751 US dollars ($US)] and clozapine ($US1423) groups than in the haloperidol group ($US6). However, the change in mean level of total mental healthcare expenditure per person was not significantly different for the risperidone group ($US832) compared with the haloperidol group ($US540) over the same time period, but the increase in the clozapine group was significantly higher ($US2500.23; p < 0.0001 for clozapinevsrisperidone and clozapine vs haloperidol). As the difference between the risperidone and haloperidol groups in pharmaceutical expenditures was not reflected in total mental healthcare expenditures, the remaining component costs were investigated to identify where the difference was offset. Compared with haloperidol, risperidone had a significantly smaller change in per person mean level of ambulatory and inpatient physician services claims for expenditure ($US692 vs $US269, p = 0.01) and utilisation (+1.70 vs −0.21, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Based on these findings, we conclude that, in this population of patients with schizophrenia increased costs associated with risperidone were offset by decreases in other mental healthcare utilization. Risperidone is a technical substitute for ambulatory healthcare services.

Direct medical cost of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the U.S.A.

The aim of this study was to estimate the direct medical costs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the United States using a public-payor perspective. Cost estimates were derived separately for 10 components of care using national survey databases and valued using Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. COPD affects 15 million people in the U.S.A. and the total annual U.S. payment for care is $6·6billion. Approximately one-third ($2·3 billion) is due to the cost of long-term oxygen therapy, one-quarter is attributed to hospitalizations and inpatient physician services ($1·9 billion), and one-seventh ($942 million) is due to nursing home stays. Other annual costs are outpatient physician visits ($480 million), prescription medications ($462 million), home healthcare ($309 million), emergency department visits ($148 million), outpatient diagnostic procedures ($55 million) and hospice care ($28 million). The cost of COPD is therefore considerable. The significant expenditure for long-term oxygen therapy indicates that disease severity is a major driver of costs. However, the cost of hospitalizations, nursing home stays, emergency department and physician visits are not insignificant.

Treatment cost of acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis

In 1994, the National Center for Health Statistics estimated that more than 14 million people (54 per thousand) had chronic bronchitis and sought treatment for 90.9% of their acute episodes. However, few studies have been done on the treatment cost of chronic bronchitis using national data. We conducted a retrospective analysis of claims for patients treated for acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis (AECB) to assess the frequency of services rendered and the costs to the health care system. Records were selected for the study based on a primary diagnosis of AECB according to the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, code. Medicare was the primary source of data on patients aged >65 years; data from the National Healthcare and Cost Utilization Project, the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey were used for patients aged <65 years. We calculated a total treatment cost of $1.2 billion for patients aged ≥65 years and $419 million for patients aged <65 years. These calculations were based on the following: 280,839 hospital discharges resulting in hospital costs of $ 1.1 billion for the 207,540 patients aged ≥65 years, and $408 million for the 73,299 patients aged <65 years. The mean hospital length of stay was 6.3 days with a mean cost of $5497 for patients aged >65 years and 5.8 days with a mean cost of $5561 for younger patients. Room and board represented the largest percentage of the mean hospital costs of AECB. Inpatient physician services cost $32 million and $11 million for the 2 age groups, respectively. Diagnosis-specific data for outpatient services were found to be less reliable than inpatient data, possibly due to diagnostic coding omissions; 331,000 outpatient office visits for AECB were found for those aged ≥65 years and 237,000 visits for those aged <65 years, resulting in respective total outpatient costs of $24.9 million and $15.1 million. If the number of outpatient visits remain consistent with 1994 levels, there would be 5.8 million visits annually for those aged ≥65 years and 4.2 million visits for those aged <65 years; total outpatient costs would be $452 million and $317 million, respectively. Because the treatment costs of AECB are largely the costs of hospitalization, any new therapy that allows more patients to be treated in the outpatient setting is likely to generate significant savings.

Exploring the Relationship Between Inpatient Facility and Physician Services

Medicare hospitalizations involve both facility and physician services. Although several studies analyze hospital-level variations in Medicare inpatient facility and inpatient physician services per admission, few studies directly explore the relationship between these services. Theoretically, inpatient facility and physician services may be complements or substitutes. That is, an increase in facility services may lead to an increase or decrease in physician services and vice versa. This article contributes to the existing literature by exploring directly the relationship between facility and physician services. Medicare physician claims were linked to inpatient hospital stays using data from the Medicare hospital cost reports, the Medicare Patient Analysis and Review file, and the Medicare National Claims History System. In multivariate regression analyses, the (partial) correlations between facility and physician services were positive, which is consistent with complementarity. Standardized regression coefficients indicate that physician services are the single most important determinant of facility services; however, facility services are a less important determinant of physician services. A 10% increase in physician services is associated with at least a 3.0% increase in facility services. Proposals that reduce inpatient physician expenditures also would reduce facility expenditures in the long-run.