Given the state of the opioid crisis, any meaningful data is valuable. So when CMS released three years of Opioid Part D prescription data in November, we all rejoiced. CMS also released a mapping tool to analyze the data. While mapping tools can be effective, they can also get in…
There is a general perception that a rising economy raises all economic boats. But poverty rates would indicate that the poorest of the poor just seem to get poorer. Many counties have actually experienced a rise in poverty rates from 2012 to 2016. We took a quick look at the…
We all know that health insurance is a moving target. According to the most recent ACS survey data, the national uninsurance rate declined from 13.0% to 11.7% in 2016. Public insurance coverages increased slightly more than private coverages (increases of .9% and .6%) respectively. This change was short-lived as Gallup…
The new CDC mortality data continues to paint a rather grim picture. Last week we focused on the external causes of the rise in death rates. This week we analyzed the mortality (death) rate among age groups using over 1.8 billion data points over 17 years from the CDC. You…
The mortality (or death) rate increased nominally from 2016 to 2017 going from 844 to 849 deaths per 100,000. This probably is not earthshaking news but based on the overall crude rate, it has actually been increasing since 2009 as noted by the following graph. Advances in medical care…
Welcome to 2018! We are making some fundamental shifts to our Weekly Insights which I hope you will enjoy. We are moving our content towards more video and free self-service analysis around our weekly topical theme. We welcome your feedback and your ideas. Over 70% of population health is…
A hot topic, especially when new job projections come out, is whether the high growth jobs require much in the way of education. Jed Kolko at Indeed Hiring Labs did a very thorough job of analyzing projected occupational growth against their respective education requirements. His conclusion was that the slower…
Healthcare workers dominate the top 10 list for projected job growth. Nine of the top 10 jobs are projected to have greater than 30% growth over the coming 10 years. Using the new Degree-to-Jobs Interactive, we sorted the projections table by projected growth and isolated the top 10 jobs as shown…
The recently released updated Food Environment Atlas data by the USDA give us a real glimpse into the progress that we as a nation are making on combating food deserts. The USDA defines food deserts as lack of access to a healthy food retail outlet (a supermarket or large grocery store)…
Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its 10-year employment projection data. This data is updated every other year. The new data shows a projected increase over the next decade of 7.4% which is a noticeable increase over the previous 6.5% 10-year projections in 2014. These projections are not…
Today, The Center for Community Solutions released a report entitled “Big City Problems in Ohio’s Small Towns” written by former Community Solutions Executive Director John Begala. John took a comprehensive look at the economic, health, educational, and social well-being of 47 small Ohio cities. John leveraged the power of the…
We in the U.S. love our rankings. I think it is embedded in our DNA. As a student of data, I love to see the various rankings and how people get worked up over them. Healthgrades recently released its latest analysis of top quality hospitals and its National Health Index, which…