The costs of quality reporting

Provider pay-for-performance initiatives aim to increase reimbursement to physicians and others who provide high-quality, low-cost care to patients. Medicare has two main programs for physicians to ahcieve these goals: (i) the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and (ii) the Alternative Payment Models (APM).  MIPS measures cost and quality for smaller physicians groups whereas APM requires…

Cigna-Express Scripts merger

Today, Cigna purchased Express Scripts for $52 billion.  This follows another mega-deal where CVS bought Aetna.  The integration of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and insurers is nothing new.  Previously, many insurers managed their own pharmacy benefit.  However, as PBMs grew in size and were able to get larger discounts and rebates, in-house PBMs became less…

The downside of medical homes

Integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and medical homes are all the rage among health wonks.  The ability for patients to receive holistic are from multispecialty practice teams seems like it would be beneficial.  While quality of care may (or may not) improve with more integrated care, provider consolidation may have one downside: higher prices.  An NBER…

Does episode-based payment reduce cost?

That is the question that Carroll and co-authors try to answer in their latest NBER working paper (WP #23926).  They examine the Arkansas Health Care Payment Improvement Initiative (APII), which is a state-wide, multi-payer episode-based program.  Unlike most episode-based payment (EBP) models, provider participation  in the program was mandatory (as of 2013).  NBER summarizes the program…

What is more for cancer patients: increased screening or treatment innovation?

Let’s get this out of the way: both are clearly important.  Within appropriate screening, patients don’t get the treatment they need.  Further, delayed screening can make treatments less effective if the cancer has progressed or metastasized.  On the other hand, without effective treatment, screening won’t have a major impact on patient outcomes. The question is,…