Does the 340B program improve quality of care?

According to a paper by Smith et al. 2023, the answer is ‘no’. The authors use data from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Data, Hospital Cost Reporting Information System Data, Office of Pharmacy Affairs Information System Data, and American Hospital Association Annual Survey for 15 states between 2008 to 2014. The…

Links

Biosimilar “skinny labels” Expensive generics? EU to ban payment for milk, sperm and blood Google Health on AI. Victor Fuchs has passed away..

The long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions; how can we model behavior?

That is the title of an interesting review paper by Squires et al. 2023. The abstract is below: The effectiveness and cost of a public health intervention is dependent on complex human behaviors, yet health economic models typically make simplified assumptions about behavior, based on little theory or evidence. This paper reviews existing methods across…

Reference pricing in the US for COVID drugs?

Perhaps according to a report from Stat News: A groundbreaking clause in a new deal between the Department of Health and Human Services and the pharmaceutical company Regeneron marks the first time the Biden administration has directly used its leverage to challenge drugmakers’ list prices, experts told STAT.The contract between Regeneron and the government requires…

Links

Excess mortality in China after ending “Zero COVID” Responsiveness to private health insurance subsidies among the elderly. power=0.06 New COVID vaccines for all. ChatGPT made zero “grossly inaccurate” statements when presented with a standard set of eye complaints.

Addressing 0 values with econometrics

Health care data–particularly spending data–often has a right skewed distribution with a high number of 0’s. For instance, US health care spending in 2019 was $11,852. However, many people don’t get sick and have no health care spending. Moreover, people generally don’t have negative health care spending. Further, some many patients with serious diseases rack…