Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Can technological change make people worse off? Most economists think technical improvements are always good. Producing more of the output with fewer input is considered a more efficient use of resources. But is this the case in the medical field? John Goddeeris shows that this may not always be the case in his 1984 paper.…
According to an article on TheHill.com, Medicare denies more claims than commercial insurers. “Medicare was the most likely to deny any part of a claim, with a 6.9 percent rate. Aetna was a close second at 6.8 percent while the others ranged from 2.7 percent to 4.6 percent. Coventry Health had the fastest median turnaround…
As mentioned in previous posts, most health insurance in the France public health care system involves significant copayments. While this helps to reduce the moral hazard problem, it may prevent poor individuals from utilizing the care they need. In 2000, France introduced free complementary health insurance plan which covers most out-of-pocket payments for the poorest…
Many studies have attempted to determine how the manner in which physicians are compensated by health insurance companies affects the quantity of medical care provided. Today I will summarize some seminal studies in this field. Epstein, Begg and McNeil (NEJM 1986) In this study, the authors examine whether or not there is a difference in…
At least Joe Paduda thinks so. His post today gives an example from the employer GTE. GTE was worried about ER and inpatient admissions rate for children with asthma. Why? Because employees who were single parents would miss work to take care of their children when they were sick. Mr. Paduda’s argues convincingly that employers…
On Friday I posted on Consumer Driven Health Care. These consumer driven health plans (CDHPs) involve individuals having direct discretion about how health care dollars are spent. If you are interested in CDHP, there may still be some confusion over which H?A you prefer. Is a HRA (Health Reimbursement Account or Health Reimbursement Arrangement) or…
Consumer directed health plans (CDHP) seem like an attractive option for small businesses. CDHPs utilize high deductible health plans (HDHP) making patients pay more money out of pocket. Because of this, insurance premiums are lower. These HDHPs can be linked to Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Since small businesses do not…
John Tierney writes in The New York Times (“Appeasing the Gods…“) that “”We buy insurance not just for peace of mind or to protect ourselves financially, but because…we think buying health insurance will keep us from getting sick.” A rational person would believe that buying insurance against an event will not alter the probability that…
Throughout its history, Medicaid provided health insurance for the nation’s poor. It did this by reimbursing providers on a fee-for-service basis. In the 1990s, however, California and other states decided to let private insurance companies bid for the right to provide services for Medicaid patients. These HMOs would receive a fixed per patient per month…
Consumers are starting to pay a larger share for high priced drugs. According to the N.Y. Times (“Co-payments“), insurance companies “…are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month.” Medicare’s drug plans have introduced new fee schedules where…