Health Wonk Review

Recent articles

• CMS 2010 Requirements for Medicare Part D Plan MTM Programs

  September 2, 2010 in Medicare Part D, Pharmaceuticals

  In an effort to standardize the provision of medication therapy management (MTM) within Medicare Part D, CMS has outlined specific requirements for Part D Plan MTM programs in 2010.  The APhA’s Medication Therapy Management Digest (March 2010) reviews these requirements.
  MTM programs must:

  Enroll targeted beneficiaries using an opt-out method only (i.e., beneficiaries are automatically enrolled unless [...]

• Health Wonk Review: In the Here and Now Edition

  September 2, 2010 in Carnivals

  The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review is up at Hank Stern’s always interesting InsureBlog.

• Are All Readmissions Bad Readmissions?

  September 1, 2010 in Hospitals

  Currently, Medicare and private insurers are attempting to put in place incentives to reduce the number of readmissions. Visits to the hospital are costly and reducing the frequency of hospital visits is the best means to reduce medical costs. In particular, if readmissions are the fault of the care the patients receive during [...]

• Tuesday Links

  August 31, 2010 in Current Events

  California Workers Comp: Parts I and II.
  Decriminalizing drugs in the Czech Republic.
  Bad news for Alzheimer’s Treatment
  The solution to obesity: school playgrounds?
  An interview with a nurse practitioner.
  Homo economicus in Paris.

• Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables

  August 31, 2010 in Econometrics

  Oftentimes, people use the following rule of thumb: if the dependent variable is continuous, use OLS; if binary use a logit or probit.  But what should you do if your dependent variable is fraction between 0 and 1.  To use a logit or probit one would have to unnecessarily transform the dependent variable into binary [...]