Kakeya sets over non-archimedean local rings

In a recent paper of Ellenberg, Oberlin, and Tao, the authors asked whether there are Besicovitch phenomena in F_q[[t]]^n. In this paper, we answer their question in the affirmative by explicitly constructing a Kakeya set in F_q[[t]]^n of measure 0. Furthermore, we prove that any Kakeya set in F_q[[t]]^2 or Z_p^2 is of Minkowski dimension 2.Comment: 10 page

Physician Profiling: Can Medicare Paint an Accurate Picture?

Physician profiling, that is, the comparison of the health care services used by a physician’s patients to average service use or another benchmark, has been proposed as a way to improve Medicare. It has been used by private health plans and physician groups to identify both efficient practice patterns and the physicians who practice efficiently. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have recommended that Medicare adopt physician profiling to slow spending growth and improve efficiency. Recent legislation would mandate that Medicare employ profiling. This issue brief reviews MedPAC and GAO’s analyses of profiling, concerns about using this type of information, and the obstacles in incorporating profiling in the Medicare program

Referrals to Mental Health Treatment Facilities

This paper is organized into three main sections. The first is a review of the literature which serves as a theoretical background for this research. Social context is examined with its implications for defining problems in terms of mental or emotional concerns. Certain personal limitations on seeking help are discussed. The literature dealing with specific referral sources to mental health treatment are examined. The second section contains impressions gained from interviews with mental health professionals about the importance of the referral source on their evaluations of a client. They responded to questions about what people come to them, what information a person\u27s referral source gives to them and the implications of this information. The third section of this paper deals with information gathered from a community mental health center. These data concern referral sources and how it may be a reflection of a client\u27s social contacts and previous experience using mental health facilities

Medicare Physician Payments and Spending

The Medicare program’s physician payment method is intended to control spending while ensuring beneficiary access to physician services, but there are signs that it may not be working. The physician’s role in the health care delivery system as the primary source of information and treatment options, together with growing demand for services and the imperfect state of knowledge about appropriate service use, challenge Medicare’s ability to achieve these two goals. This issue brief describes the history of physician spending and the contribution of escalating service use and intensity of services to the rise in Medicare outlays, setting the stage for further discussion about the use of the Medicare payment system to control spending and ensure access