Public Option would lead to increased physician shortages
That is the conclusion from a recent report from some of my colleagues at FTI Consulting’s Center for Healthcare Economics and Policy. In the report […]
Supply of Medical Services
VA vs. private hospitals
How do efficiently is care provided for patients at Veteran Affairs’ hospitals as compared to private hospitals? This is not an easy question to answer […]
Public vs. private insurer hospital reimbursement rates
Recently the CBO published a report compared the rates public and private insurers pay to hospitals for inpatient services, for services at hospital outpatient departments […]
When making treatment choices, do physicians consider patient health and economic impacts?
A paper by Ge et al. (2022) aims to answer this question with a discrete choice experiment survey of medical students at Shandong University in […]
Impact of hospital closures on rural economies
Not surprisingly, the impact is significant. That is according to a study by Malone et al. (2022), estimated using a difference-in-difference design with data between […]
Impact of the DRG system on hospital length of stay
In many countries including the US and England, hospitals are paid by payers (i.e., commercial insurers and governments) on a per-admission basis with more reimbursement […]
Who pays more for hospital and physician services: commercial payers, Medicare or Medicaid? And how much more?
Many people might know that generally the answer is commercial health plans have the most generous reimbursement compared to government plans. However, a key question […]
Does ownership status impact the services that hospitals offer?
That is the question asked by Horwitz and Nichols (2022) in their paper out this week in Health Affairs. I summarize their paper below. Data […]
Patient Demand and Overuse of Prescription Drugs
The concept of moral hazard is well-known. If patients pay a small share of drug or other medical cost, they may decide to overuse such […]
Physician Group Influences on Treatment Intensity
Over time, physicians are less likely to operate in solo or small group practices. In fact, the share of physician-owned practices has fallen below 50% […]
Nurse employment and wage trends
Recent news articles have spilled much ink about the current nurse shortage. According to Pew, due to nursing shortages “Hospitals nationwide are canceling nonemergency surgeries, […]
Teamwork makes the dream work
There is much policy discussion about the need for increased care coordination. AHRQ defines care coordination as “deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information […]
Quality of Care at Teaching Hospitals
Medicare pays higher reimbursement to teaching hospitals through indirect medical education (IME) payments to hospitals that train a high share of residents. IME inflate standard […]
Nursing shortages
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the worst part of the pandemic is largely past us (see NYT graph) with more people getting vaccinated. One would […]
CMMI and its revised strategy
Created by Section 3021 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI; aka The CMS Innovation Center) has been […]
Food insecurity among health care workers
When you think of health care workers, many think of physicians, nurses and hospital administrators, who often make an above average salary. Not all health […]
Physician Switching After Drug Request Refusal
That is the title from a study from Lee and Bagley (2011). They examine the potential impact of direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) and the […]
Impact of Certificate of Need on Health
An interesting paper from Kevin Chiu in the Journal of Health Economics looks at the relationship between certificate of need laws and health outcomes: Certificate […]
Integrated Delivery Network-based Specialty Pharmacies
Increasingly, integrated delivery networks (IDNs) are creating their own full-blown specialty pharmacies. Many are familiar with the integrated payer-provider model from groups such as Kaiser […]
‘Big is beautiful’ when it comes to physician practices?
A book by Robert Atkinson and Michael Lind argued that big businesses–rather than small businesses–are the drivers of the economy. That book had the catchy […]
Health systems bringing specialty pharmacy in-house
That is one trend as reported in Modern Healthcare. Being able to better managed health care spend across medical and pharmacy is one reason. In […]
How are ACOs trying to lower cost?
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) aim to use coordinated care to increase quality and lower cost. While everyone likes the sound of integrated care, it may […]
Does the arrival of urgent care centers reduce the acuity of visits at nearby EDs?
Urgent care centers are on the rise. Back in 2013, there were only 6,100, but this number increased to 9,616 by late 2019 a 7.9% […]
The rise of the health systems
Health systems have been touted by some to be a cure to many of our health care systems ills by providing integrated, high quality care. […]
A Haven No More
Haven was a high-profile effort whereby three industry titans–Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan–created a joint venture with the hope of lower costs and improving […]
Private health care = higher quality
What is better: public or private health care systems? This is a difficult question to answer. If we compare the British against the US health […]
Hospital CEO pay
How much are hospital CEOs getting paid? A paper by Mulligan et al. (2020) provides the answer: Between 2010 and 2015, mean hospital CEO compensation […]
On the promise and peril of health systems
Integrated delivery networks. IDNs. Accountable Care Organizations. ACOs. Systems of care. Health systems. Whatever you call them, many health policy experts claim that they are […]
The Oncology Care Model is dead. Long Live the Oncology Care First Model.
The Oncology Care Model is slated to end soon. Specifically, the last set of six-month episodes would initiate no later than December 31, 2020 and […]
