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FDA on AI. Rural hospital closures on maternal and infant health. Price caps for obesity drugs? One framework for fair drug pricing. Iterative approach to model-based decision making in health.
Author: Jason Shafrin
A Tutorial on Estimating Costs Associated with Disease Model States Using GLM
Modelling health care cost is often problematic because are distributed in a non-normal manner. Typically, there are a large number of $0 observations (i.e., individuals who do not use any health care) and cost distribution that is strongly right skewed among health care users due a disproportionate number of individuals with very high health care…
Does the UK use £15,000, £30,000 or a £70,000 per QALY cost effectiveness threshold?
A de facto number that is used by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is £30,000 per quality adjusted life year (QALY). Some recent literature (Martin et al. 2023) argues for a lower cost-effectiveness threshold (£15,000/QALY or less) based on their marginal cost per QALY (MCPQ) estimates. Alternatively, a paper by Sampson and…
Medicaid Coverage and Reimbursement of Antiobesity Medications across States
Medicaid policies vary from state-to-state. With the advent of new, GLP-1 medications (and others) to treat obesity and overweight, there are potentially significant health benefits to be gained. However, are State Medicaid Agencies actually covering these medications? This is the question asked by Liu et al. (2024). They use data from public state Medicaid formulary…
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The future of economics. Hacker attack on health data. Where is air pollution highest in low- and middle-income countries. 5.8m children have long COVID Underrated: the HPV vaccine.
Healthcare Economist among the top Public Health blogs
That is according to Feedspot’s “70 Best Public Health Blogs and Websites” ranking. Healthcare Economist came in at #15. Check out the other top-ranked blogs and websites here.
Private healthcare the ‘ new normal’ in the UK?
Perhaps so according to the health policy editor at the Guardian. He writes that as NHS has grown weaker, private medical insurance is becoming a more attractive option. The long delays for NHS care that are now endemic – and cause so much worry, risk and harm to those left waiting – are not going…
What are the 4 pillars of medical ethics?
The 4 pillars of medical ethics are: Beneficence means that practitioners should act as they believe is in the best interest of the patient. Unlike non-maleficence, it goes beyond simply doing no harm and encourages to actively help others. Beneficence is important because it ensures that healthcare professionals consider individual circumstances and remember that what…
PREFER recommendations for patient preference studies
Patient preferences should be the most important part of health care decisionmaking. However, third parties often make decisions for patients. Physicians make decisions for patients due to asymmetric information (i.e., physicians are experts; patients typically are not). Payers make decisions for patients since–in most developed countries–third-party payment cover most of the cost. Moreover, in some…
A primer on formularies
Hydery and Reddy (2024) provide a nice primer on drug formularies. Below is a quick overview. What is a formulary? A formulary is a continually updated list of medications, products, and technologies supported by current evidence-based medicine, as well as the judgment of physicians, pharmacists, and other relevant experts in the diagnosis and treatment of disease…