Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Using commercial claims data between 2009-2018, a paper in Health Services Research by Lalani et al (2024) finds that: Rebates are rising as a share of cost Fewer patients have $0 out-of-pocket cost Patient out-of-pocket costs growth was 2.9x as large as net drug cost growth Specifically: List prices increased 4.4%/yr (interquartile range [IQR], 1.1%…
Interesting paper by Cabral and Dillender (2024). The randomization of gender assignment occurs since the Texas workers compensation insurance relies on random assignment of doctors to patients through their dispute resolution process. The abstract is below: Little is known about what drives gender disparities in health care and related social insurance benefits. Using data and…
How do mental health issues impact the likelihood of food security? This question is difficult to answer empirically for (at a minimum) two primary reasons: Endogeneity/Unobserved factors. For instance, personal, family, and neighborhood characteristics (e.g., family stability, access to health care, exposure to violence) may impact both mental health and the likelihood of food insecurity.…
How to use Chat GPT. Caregivers: ‘I Wish I Had Known That No One Was Going to Help Me’ 4 health issues for the 2024 Presidential Election. Issues with HDHPs. Measles outbreak in the UK.
That is the title of a recent paper by Hernandez and Hung (2024). The article provides an excellent review of how drugs get reimbursed in the US and who the key players are. I provide an abbreviated summary below, but do read the full article. The players Manufacturers research, develop, and bring new drug products…
According to a recent paper by Lennon et al. (2023), about half of the increase in health insurance exchange coverage due to ACA was from individuals who otherwise would have purchased private insurance. The study abstract is below. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided funding to help states expand Medicaid eligibility to those earning up…
That is the answer Caswell-Jin et al. (2024) aim to answer. The authors used 4 cancer mortality models within CISNET for this study: Model D (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). Used to define a set of disease states and implemented analytic formulations to estimate the association of interventions on transitions between these states, as well as on…
Milton Friedman’s thermostat. CDC: Low vaccination rates for COVID, flu and RSV. Are minorities more commonly misdiagnosed? Does economic insecurity cause obesity? Do wellness programs work?
These trends are summarized on their webpage and in a larger report. Here they are with some key excerpts from their report: Real world Evidence. “As RWE continues to gain significant traction in healthcare, agencies including the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), The National Institute for Health and…
epidemic. noun an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time : an outbreak of epidemic disease an outbreak or product of sudden rapid spread, growth, or development The opioid epidemic is one that has impact a large number of Americans. Data from 2019 shows that there were over…