Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
In recent years, researchers have created a number of complex simulation models to estimate future trends and the impacts of policy changes. Some of the more prominant models include: RAND Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts (COMPARE) CBO’s Health Insurance Simulation Model (HISim) Urban Institute’s Health Insurance Reform Simulation Model (HIRSM), Future Elderly Model (FEM) These…
one good place to go is IPUMS. IPUMS is run by the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota. The website contains microdata from a large number of surveys including the Census, American Community Survey, and Current Population Study. From the IPUMS website: The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS-USA) consists of more than…
Hacking Health is a new a blog that looks at the intersections between big data, life science and healthcare. What questions does it intend to address? “Improving healthcare is a big data problem. The volume and kinds of data that are created over the course of a patient’s journey through the healthcare system are so large and…
You may have seen on Amazon or near the UPC of your book an ISBN. What is an ISBN? Can it be any number? Why does the Healthcare Economist care? Answers are provided below. What is an ISBN? According to Wikipedia: “The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based…
The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program provides employee health benefits are provided to civilian government employees. In 2012, federal employees had a choice of 206 health plans. These plans include: 14 fee for service plans (10 available to all eligible federal employees and retirees and 4 open to employees in certain agencies); 164 HMO…
Most people think that medical services typically provided in a physician’s office of a hospital. However, medical services can be provided in a variety of settings. Medicare categorizes providers according to a place of service variable. The place of service include the following settings: Pharmacy; School; Homeless Shelter; Indian Health Service Free-standing Facility; Indian Health…
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is responsible for answering just that question. To determine what level Section 8 vouchers should be set, HUD measures the rents for every county across the nation. Specifically, they measure the 40th percentile and 50th percentile (i.e., median) rents in each area. They choose to use the…
Many researchers use household data sources to examine a variety of hypothesis. The use of household data has many benefits including allowing for more detailed socioeconomic information (e.g., education, income) beyond what is contained in administrative claims files. One drawback of household data is that extrapolations made from household survey data may not match national…
Many health insurers (public and private) reimburse doctors based on the patient’s diagnosis. If you treat a patient for a more severe illness during a inpatient stay, Medicare pays you more money. Physicians use procedures to bill insurers for the care they provided. How do insurers know the patient’s diagnosis and the procedures providers perform?…
Health economists have always said that one of the main problems with health care is that no one knows the price of any services. Thus, individuals have less of an incentive to shop for high value care. [Other experts claim that prices don’t matter as much because demand for healthcare is inelastic.] One step towards…