Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
As the economy worsened, Medicaid enrollment has risen. In the short-run, however, States have been able to avoid large increases in Medicaid spending because the Federal government has footed the tab. According to the HHS: “Over the past three years, despite rising enrollment due to the economic recession, nationwide State spending on the Medicaid program…
According to Fuchs and Millstein, here’s why: Insurers hesitation to standardize coverage. Standardization of coverage would force insurance companies to compete primarily on the basis of price, which would put pressure on their profits. Employers bear too much of the marginal cost from employees choosing expensive health plans. Because companies wish to avoid alienating employees,…
As part of Health Reform, the government created the a center to study clinical effectiveness of different health treatments. This center, known as the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), “does not have the power to mandate or even endorse coverage rules or reimbursement for any particular treatment.” What leverage does the Institute have? Not too…
According to Kathleen Lohr, the most pressing issues for comparative effectiveness research (CER) include: 1) how to conduct CER for heterogeneous patient populations and 2) ways to implement longitudinal investigations to capture long-term health outcomes. Today I will focus on measuring patient heterogeneity. Although it makes sense to take into account differences across patients, measuring…