Activity-Based Funding of Hospitals and Its Impact on Mortality, Readmission, Discharge Destination, Severity of Illness, and Volume of Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Activity-based funding (ABF) of hospitals is a policy intervention intended to re-shape incentives across health systems through the use of diagnosis-related groups. Many countries are adopting or actively promoting ABF. We assessed the effect of ABF on key measures potentially affecting patients and health care systems: mortality (acute and post-acute care); readmission rates; discharge rate to post-acute care following hospitalization; severity of illness; volume of care.     Methods: We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of the worldwide evidence produced since 1980. We included all studies reporting original quantitative data comparing the impact of ABF versus alternative funding systems in acute care settings, regardless of language. We searched 9 electronic databases (OVID MEDLINE, EMBASE, OVID Healthstar, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, Health Technology Assessment, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Business Source), hand-searched reference lists, and consulted with experts. Paired reviewers independently screened for eligibility, abstracted data, and assessed study credibility according to a pre-defined scoring system, resolving conflicts by discussion or adjudication.     Results: Of 16,565 unique citations, 50 US studies and 15 studies from 9 other countries proved eligible (i.e. Australia, Austria, England, Germany, Israel, Italy, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland). We found consistent and robust differences between ABF and no-ABF in discharge to post-acute care, showing a 24% increase with ABF (pooled relative risk = 1.24, 95% CI 1.18–1.31). Results also suggested a possible increase in readmission with ABF, and an apparent increase in severity of illness, perhaps reflecting differences in diagnostic coding. Although we found no consistent, systematic differences in mortality rates and volume of care, results varied widely across studies, some suggesting appreciable benefits from ABF, and others suggesting deleterious consequences.     Conclusions: Transitioning to ABF is associated with important policy- and clinically-relevant changes. Evidence suggests substantial increases in admissions to post-acute care following hospitalization, with implications for system capacity and equitable access to care. High variability in results of other outcomes leaves the impact in particular settings uncertain, and may not allow a jurisdiction to predict if ABF would be harmless. Decision-makers considering ABF should plan for likely increases in post-acute care admissions, and be aware of the large uncertainty around impacts on other critical outcomes

One-year risk of psychiatric hospitalization and associated treatment costs in bipolar disorder treated with atypical antipsychotics: a retrospective claims database analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study compared 1-year risk of psychiatric hospitalization and treatment costs in commercially insured patients with bipolar disorder, treated with aripiprazole, ziprasidone, olanzapine, quetiapine or risperidone.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a retrospective propensity score-matched cohort study using the Ingenix Lab/Rx integrated insurance claims dataset. Patients with bipolar disorder and 180 days of pre-index enrollment without antipsychotic exposure who received atypical antipsychotic agents were followed for up to 12 months following the initial antipsychotic prescription. The primary analysis used Cox proportional hazards regression to evaluate time-dependent risk of hospitalization, adjusting for age, sex and pre-index hospitalization. Generalized gamma regression compared post-index costs between treatment groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to aripiprazole, ziprasidone, olanzapine and quetiapine had higher risks for hospitalization (hazard ratio 1.96, 1.55 and 1.56, respectively; p < 0.05); risperidone had a numerically higher but not statistically different risk (hazard ratio 1.37; p = 0.10). Mental health treatment costs were significantly lower for aripiprazole compared with ziprasidone (p = 0.004) and quetiapine (p = 0.007), but not compared to olanzapine (p = 0.29) or risperidone (p = 0.80). Total healthcare costs were significantly lower for aripiprazole compared to quetiapine (p = 0.040) but not other comparators.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In commercially insured adults with bipolar disorder followed for 1 year after initiation of atypical antipsychotics, treatment with aripiprazole was associated with a lower risk of psychiatric hospitalization than ziprasidone, quetiapine, olanzapine and risperidone, although this did not reach significance with the latter. Aripiprazole was also associated with significantly lower total healthcare costs than quetiapine, but not the other comparators.</p

Belgian consensus on metabolic problems associated with atypical antipsychotics

A workshop was convened by a panel of psychiatrists, diabetologists and pharmacists from major Belgian hospitals to review the latest information relating to the risks with second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) for the development of metabolic disorders, especially impaired glucose tolerance, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia. The panelists sought to formulate recommendations for practising psychiatrists when initiating and maintaining therapy with SGA, and for the switch of SGA or initiation of further treatment if metabolic complications occur. In addition, recommendations for counselling of the patient and for the cooperation between the psychiatrist and the general physician or diabetologist, respectively, were provided