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Billing and insurance-related administrative costs in United States’ health care: synthesis of micro-costing evidence

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Health Services Research, November 2014
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#11 of 8,701)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
22 news outlets
blogs
12 blogs
policy
1 policy source
twitter
146 X users
facebook
3 Facebook pages
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
googleplus
2 Google+ users

Citations

dimensions_citation
49 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
134 Mendeley
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Title
Billing and insurance-related administrative costs in United States’ health care: synthesis of micro-costing evidence
Published in
BMC Health Services Research, November 2014
DOI 10.1186/s12913-014-0556-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Aliya Jiwani, David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, James G Kahn

Abstract

BackgroundThe United States¿ multiple-payer health care system requires substantial effort and costs for administration, with billing and insurance-related (BIR) activities comprising a large but incompletely characterized proportion. A number of studies have quantified BIR costs for specific health care sectors, using micro-costing techniques. However, variation in the types of payers, providers, and BIR activities across studies complicates estimation of system-wide costs. Using a consistent and comprehensive definition of BIR (including both public and private payers, all providers, and all types of BIR activities), we synthesized and updated available micro-costing evidence in order to estimate total and added BIR costs for the U.S. health care system in 2012.MethodsWe reviewed BIR micro-costing studies across healthcare sectors. For physician practices, hospitals, and insurers, we estimated the % BIR using existing research and publicly reported data, re-calculated to a standard and comprehensive definition of BIR where necessary. We found no data on % BIR in other health services or supplies settings, so extrapolated from known sectors. We calculated total BIR costs in each sector as the product of 2012 U.S. national health expenditures and the percentage of revenue used for BIR. We estimated ¿added¿ BIR costs by comparing total BIR costs in each sector to those observed in existing, simplified financing systems (Canada¿s single payer system for providers, and U.S. Medicare for insurers). Due to uncertainty in inputs, we performed sensitivity analyses.ResultsBIR costs in the U.S. health care system totaled approximately $471 ($330 ¿ $597) billion in 2012. This includes $70 ($54 ¿ $76) billion in physician practices, $74 ($58 ¿ $94) billion in hospitals, an estimated $94 ($47 ¿ $141) billion in settings providing other health services and supplies, $198 ($154 ¿ $233) billion in private insurers, and $35 ($17 ¿ $52) billion in public insurers. Compared to simplified financing, $375 ($254 ¿ $507) billion, or 80%, represents the added BIR costs of the current multi-payer system.ConclusionsA simplified financing system in the U.S. could result in cost savings exceeding $350 billion annually, nearly 15% of health care spending.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 146 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 134 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 2 1%
Unknown 132 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 40 30%
Student > Doctoral Student 18 13%
Researcher 13 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 13 10%
Student > Bachelor 8 6%
Other 19 14%
Unknown 23 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 41 31%
Nursing and Health Professions 16 12%
Business, Management and Accounting 13 10%
Social Sciences 12 9%
Unspecified 4 3%
Other 18 13%
Unknown 30 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 365. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 October 2023.
All research outputs
#87,435
of 25,542,788 outputs
Outputs from BMC Health Services Research
#11
of 8,701 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#724
of 270,718 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Health Services Research
#2
of 146 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,542,788 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,701 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 270,718 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 146 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.