Links
California indoor mask mandate to end next week. More government involvement in clinical trials? SAFER electronic health records. Innovation and nails. Cost offset literature. Substance abuse and COVID-19.
Month: February 2022
Should individuals have a choice over insurance generosity?
Should your employer offer you a single health plan type or is it better to be offered a menu of health insurance options that vary by generosity level. At first glance, the answer seems that more choice is better; different individuals may have different risk preferences; some may prefer higher premiums and more generous coverage…
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 services. Physicians, however, may also have an incentive to overprescribe if either their reimbursement is tied to prescriptions written. For instance, CMS pays physicians 103% of wholesale acquisition cost (WAC)…
Is physician compensation tied mostly to volume or value?
Alternative payment models (APM) are the new trend of the past few decades. High quality, efficient providers should be paid more; low-quality, less efficient providers should be paid less. These APM reimbursement arrangements, however, are typically paid at the health system level and it is unclear whether these incentives trickle down to individual physicians. A…
Health Years in Total (HYT)
Standard quality approach compares the difference in QALYs which is a function of survival and quality of life during each survival period. Consider the comparison of treatments A and B, where treatment A is the novel treatment and treatment B is the standard of care. Under the QALY based approach this is calculated as Where…
Links
Can cataract surgery stave off dementia? Cancer statistics 2022. U.S. uninsured 8.9%. Economist: In defense of the consumer welfare standard. Kaiser and adverse selection in California?
Health insurance churn among patients with schizophrenia
For any patients–but especially those with neurodevelopmental illnesses such as schizophrenia–have a consistent ‘medical home’ is vital for continuity of care. However, having consistent access to provider who know your medical history may be challenging if you frequently switch health insurance. “Insurance churn” is defined a patients who either transition between health plans or transition…