Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
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…
This policy brief provides the answer. One interesting finding is how the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate may put a bind on poor, legal immigrants. “Legal immigrants with less than five years of legal permanent residency will face the same requirement as native born U.S. citizens to have health insurance coverage. However, legal immigrants…
Stephen Zuckerman has a nice summary of the key provisions in the Health Reform law (i.e., PPACA). There are six broad changes: i) the creation of health insurance exchanges, ii) an excise tax on high-cost health plans, iii) creating the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), iv) Medicare policy changes v) additional emphasis on prevention and…
How will health reform affect small, medium and large size businesses? Linda Blumberg answers this question in this RWJ policy brief. Blumberg summarizes the legislation as follows: “Small employers, those with fewer than 50 workers, will face no new requirements but will have new insurance options made available to them through the new health insurance…
How will health reform affect state health care costs? Will reform bankrupt states as some Republicans say? Or will costs be negligible, as Democrats claims? According to a study by Holahan and Dorn (2010) the answer is somewhere in the middle. Most of the additional costs will come from expanding Medicaid to newly eligible population,…
The Healthcare Economist has previously reviewed different forms of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Implementing ACOs in practice, however, may prove more difficult. How could the government or private insurers incentivize providers to provide integrated care? How can they incentivize providers do perform fewer services and, thus, make less money? An article by Shortell and Casalino…
Medicare and Innovation in the same sentence? Yes indeed. As part of Health Reform [i.e, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)], the government mandated the creation of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMI). What does CMI do? “The stated purpose of the CMI is to test innovative payment and service delivery models…
Kolstad and Kowalski (2010) examine how the Massachusetts individual mandate affected uninsurance rates, hospital and outpatient utilization, and preventive care: “Among the population discharged from the hospital in Massachusetts, the reform decreased uninsurance by 28% relative to its initial level. Increased coverage affected utilization patterns by decreasing length of stay and the number of inpatient…