Weekend update

Here's a link to the Week in Congress's report on last week's actions on Capitol Hill. That publication indicates that both Houses of Congress are working from their home districts following Martin Luther King Day tomorrow.

Studies and surveys --

• Healthcare Dive informs us that "Total drug spend per hospital admission increased 18.5% between fiscal years 2015 and 2017, resulting in $1.8 million in additional costs for an average hospital, according to a report sponsored by the American Hospital Associations and fellow hospital organizations. Dive observes that "The report is the latest sortie in the ongoing PR battle between providers and pharmaceutical companies over who exactly is to blame for skyrocketing drug prices in the U.S." Health plans are caught in the middle between the hospitals and the pharmaceutical manufacturers. 

• Fierce Healthcare reports on a recent study on the extent to which antibiotics are prescribed appropriately in the the U.S. "Researchers found 23.2% to be inappropriate, 35.5% potentially appropriate and only 12.8% appropriate. The remaining 28.5% had no related diagnosis code on which to base any judgment."  No bueno.  This problem has been a tough nut to crack. 

• Healthcare Dive also reports on a "multistate study by the National Bureau of Economic Research compared nonemergent ED use when UCCs were open and closed. The results showed a 1.4% uptick in ED visits after the last center in an area closed for the day — or about 2.4 million ED visits annually. The effect was limited to privately insured patients, the primary targets of UCCs." Here's an opening for telehealth services.