AHEAD OF PRINT

Differences In Starting Pay For Male And Female Physicians Persist; Explanations For The Gender Gap Remain Elusive
By Anthony T. Lo Sasso, David Armstrong, Gaetano Forte, and Susan E. Gerber

Anthony Lo Sasso and coauthors examined survey data for graduating medical residents and fellows in New York State for the years 1999–2017. They found that during this period, the average starting compensation was $235,044 for men and $198,426 for women, with a larger gap in more recent years than in earlier years. Approximately 60 percent of the gap in starting salary could be explained primarily by differences in specialty and hours spent in patient care. Read More >>


PHARMACEUTICALS & MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

The Effect Of Veterans Health Administration Coverage On Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence
By Adam Gaffney, David H. Bor, David U. Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, and Danny McCormick

Cost sharing for prescription drugs, even among people with health insurance, can be a barrier to adhering to medication regimens. Adam Gaffney and coauthors compare adherence among those with Veterans Health Administration coverage, which has very limited cost sharing, to that among people with prescription drug coverage that is less comprehensive. Read More >>


COSTS & SPENDING

National Health Care Spending In 2018: Growth Driven By Accelerations In Medicare And Private Insurance Spending
By Micah Hartman, Anne B. Martin, Joseph Benson, Aaron Catlin, and
The National Health Expenditure Accounts Team

This new analysis from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that in 2018 health care spending in the United States grew at a rate of 4.6 percent to $3.6 trillion, or $11,172 per person. The 4.6 percent growth rate in 2018 was faster than that of 4.2 percent in 2017 but was equal to the rate in 2016. The 0.4-percentage-point acceleration in overall growth in 2018 was driven by faster growth in private health insurance spending and Medicare. For the second year in a row, the number of uninsured people increased by 1.0 million, reaching 30.7 million in 2018. Read More >>


HOSPITALS

Out-Of-Network Billing And Negotiated Payments For Hospital-Based Physicians
By Zack Cooper, Hao Nguyen, Nathan Shekita, and Fiona Scott Morton

Most recently, attention on out-of-network billing has been focused on patients receiving large, unexpected physician bills. However, the impact of out-of-network billing on total health care spending is also significant, according to Zack Cooper and coauthors from Yale University. Analyzing data from a large commercial insurer, the authors found that at in-network hospitals, 11.8 percent of anesthesiology care, 12.3 percent of care involving a pathologist, 5.6 percent of claims for radiologists, and 11.3 percent of cases involving an assistant surgeon were billed out of network. Read More >>