OBJECTIVE To explore the characteristics, motivations, ideologies, experience and perspectives of experienced medical humanitarian workers. DESIGN We applied a qualitative descriptive approach and conducted in-depth semistructured interviews, containing open-ended questions with directing probes, with 44 experienced international medical aid workers from a wide range of humanitarian organisat...

This article is the last in a series of studies concerning Medicare program costs of Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries who were under age 62 at time of entitlement to disabled-worker benefits. The earlier work provided the statistical analysis and mathematical models needed to construct estimates of Medicare costs for those beneficiaries while in the DI program. In this ar...

BACKGROUND The prevalence, health care expenditures, and hospitalization experiences are important considerations among elderly populations with multiple chronic conditions. METHODS A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on a nationally random sample of 1 217 103 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 and older living in the United States and enrolled in both Medicare Part A and Med...

PURPOSE We assess the effect of consumer-directed care on the emotional, physical, and financial well-being of the primary informal caregivers of the Medicaid beneficiaries who voluntarily joined Arkansas's Cash and Counseling demonstration. DESIGN AND METHODS The demonstration randomly assigned beneficiaries to a program in which they could direct their own disability-related supportive serv...

ISSUE: Fifty-six million people--17 percent of the U.S. population--rely on Medicare. Yet, its benefits exclude dental, vision, hearing, and long-term services, and it contains no ceiling on out-of-pocket costs for covered services, exposing beneficiaries to high costs. GOAL: To inform discussion of possible changes to Medicare, this issue brief looks at beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs by in...

There are numerous types of benefits paid under the Social Security programs of the United States, with each type of benefit having its own set of eligibility rules and benefit formula. It is likely that there is an association between the type of benefit a person receives and the economic circumstances of the beneficiary. This article explores that association using records from the Current Po...

In 1982, disabled workers who came on the social security disability insurance rolls from mid-1980 to mid-1981 had median monthly incomes of less than $500 if they were unmarried and less than $1,300 if they were married. These median monthly income levels, which include the income of a spouse and minor children if present, are roughly half those of the noninstitutionalized population aged 25-6...

Objective The aim of this study was to examine the impact of pre-existing malnutrition on survival and economic implications in elderly patients with diabetes. Research design and methods A retrospective observational study was conducted to examine the impact of malnutrition with or without other significant health conditions on survival time and healthcare costs using the Centers for Medicar...

A BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ANNUAL QUALITY AND RESOURCE USE REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................ 1 B EXHIBITS INCLUDED IN THE ANNUAL QUALITY AND RESOURCE USE REPORTS ............... 2 Your TIN’s 2017 Value Modifier .........................................................................

OBJECTIVES To estimate the frequency and characteristics of opioid prescribing by multiple providers in Medicare and the association with hospital admissions related to opioid use. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Database of prescription drugs and medical claims in 20% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries in 2010. PARTICIPANTS 1,808,355 Medicare beneficiaries who filled at l...