Is VBID gaining a foothold?

The answer is maybe.  Value-based insurance design ties patient cost sharing to the notion of a treatment’s value.  Higher value treatments have lower cost sharing; lower value treatments have higher cost sharing.  The Incidental Economist writes: In his own practice, Dr. Fendrick feels as if standard insurance is working against him and his patients. “They are deeply…

Is your state solvent?

That is the question that a new study by the Mercatus Center attempts to answer with their “Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition 2017 Edition.” They found that the most financially solvent states (from best to worst) are: 1. Florida 2. North Dakota 3. South Dakota 4. Utah 5. Wyoming Yet all is not perfect…

Quality of your (Social) Life

Many metrics purport to measure individuals quality of life.  Tools such as the EQ-5D and SF-36 do so largely based on functional status.  Using other surveys on individual preferences, one can estimate patient utility for any given functional status level (i.e,. EQ-5D or SF-36 score).  What these scores ignore, however, is the social component of…

CBO Scores Better Care

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently scored the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.  What did they conclude? The good news: The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 is a fiscally responsible bill.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Better Care cuts taxes by $701 billion between 2017-2026 but would also cut spending by…