Health Beat: Healthcare costs top financial concern for U.S. families

Editor’s note: Each Wednesday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Health Beat,” a round-up of health-related topics. –––––––––––––––

GALLUP POLL: HEALTHCARE COSTS TOP FINANCIAL CONCERN FOR U.S. FAMILIES
Fifteen percent of Americans cite healthcare costs as the most important financial problem facing their family. In addition to healthcare costs, Americans also point to low wages, debt, college expenses and housing costs as pressing financial concerns for their family. About one in 10 Americans say their family faces no financial problems.

Those are results of Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance poll, conducted April 6-10 this year. To view the full report, click here.

CMS ADDS NEW QUALITY MEASURES TO NURSING HOME COMPARISON WEBSITE
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added six new quality measures to its consumer-based Nursing Home Compare website. Three of the six new quality measures are based on Medicare-claims data submitted by hospitals, which is significant because this is the first time CMS is including quality measures that are not based solely on data that are self-reported by nursing homes. These three quality measures measure the rate of re-hospitalization, emergency room use, and community discharge among nursing home residents.

With the new quality measure updates, CMS is nearly doubling the number of short-stay measures, which reflect care provided to residents who are in the nursing home for 100 days or less. CMS is also providing information about key short-stay outcomes, including the percentage of residents who are successfully discharged and the rate of activities of daily life (ADL) improvement among short-stay residents.

For more information on the nursing home comparison tool, click here.

CDC: 1 IN 3 ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS UNNECESSARY
At least 30% of antibiotics prescribed in the U.S. are unnecessary, according to new data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with Pew Charitable Trusts and other public health and medical experts.

The study analyzed antibiotic use in doctors’ offices and emergency departments throughout the United States. CDC researchers found that most of these unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for respiratory conditions caused by viruses – including common colds, viral sore throats, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections – which do not respond to antibiotics. These 47 million excess prescriptions each year put patients at needless risk for allergic reactions or the sometimes deadly diarrhea, Clostridium difficile.

Congress has recognized the urgent need to combat antibiotic resistance, appropriating $160 million in new funding for CDC to implement its activities listed in the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. To learn more about the CDC’s antibiotic stewardship program, click here.