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Better outcomes not linked to cost rise

BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A study released Tuesday suggests a disconnect between newer, pricier health treatments and the rising cost of healthcare.

The study, by Dartmouth economists Jonathan Skinner and Douglas Staiger and physician Elliott Fisher, shows instead that factors that led to improved outcomes for heart-attack patients, for example, were not the same factors that prompted the skyrocketing increase in overall healthcare costs.

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For example, the researchers argue that, on average, between 1986 and 2002 there were large strides made in heart-attack survivability. Yet most of these improved cardiac outcomes occurred before 1997, but cost continued to increase even after that time.

"Uneven distribution of cost-effective innovations is a key factor driving differences in patient costs and outcomes," the Dartmouth trio said in a study published Tuesday on the Health Affairs Web site. "Put more simply, the benefits of health spending depend on how one spends the money."

In the Dartmouth study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, the researchers looked at care from 1986-2002 given to heart-attack patients. They found that the studied regions that showed a high use of low-cost aspirin and beta blockers actually achieved better patient outcomes than those regions that scored high in average number of doctors and higher use of specialists within one year of the patient's heart attack.

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The researchers said the results help explain why there is a negative association between spending and quality of care in a given year, because the less efficient regions are spending more money in inefficient ways that don't result in better health outcomes.

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