Pay caps on nurses in the UK

I’m finishing my time in the UK today and head back home tomorrow.  The British Society for Rheumatology 2017 conference was interesting, on the news the key headlines were pay for National Health Service employees, nurses in particular. Due to budget shortfalls, the NHS froze nurse pay between 2010 and 2012.  Beginning in 2012, pay raises resumed…

The Voice of the Patient

Did you ever wonder what is is like having lung cancer?  Or narcolepsy?    What factors are most important to patients when receiving treatment for these diseases? The FDA is working to collect these answers to help guide their drug approval process.  The FDA’s “Voice of the Patient” aims to “…more systematically gather patients’ perspectives…

How does payment reform affect providers in competitive vs. non-competitive markets?

How does payment reform affect access to care?  And what does payment reform mean? Payment reform can mean manythings but in this context we will mean substituting fee-for-service or cost-plus reimbursement schemes for fixed reimbursement for a fixed episodes of care or fixed bundles of services during a specific time frame. One example of how payment reform worked,…

FDA Hedges

Pharmaceutical companies face major risk.  There is risk that the drugs they are researching don’t work (e.g., lack of efficacy) or are not safe.  There is risk that health insurers or government payers will not cover their treatment.  And there is risk that the FDA will not approve a drug after a Phase III clinical trial.…

Access to cancer care in the UK

Being sick in the United Kingdom has advantages and disadvantages.  Supporters will cite that out-of-pocket costs are generally low, coverage is universal, and the price of health care to the government is lower. One question is, what is the quality of care received?  Critics cite that access to cutting edge, innovative treatments is often restricted or…