Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
As the baby boomers age, the responsibility for the care of many of these individuals will fall to their children. For the elderly who have trouble running errands, dressing themselves, or even bathing themselves, having a family member as a caregiver can significantly improve the elderly’s quality of life. Many of these caregivers get burnt…
The New York Times Magazine discusses two pressing issues: 1) what type of treatment to the elderly really wish to receive at the end of their life and 2) how does economic incentives affect how physicians advise these patients. Much of my own research has dealt with (2) [see here]. The following two excerpts are…
In spring of 2009, the federal government passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act or CHIPRA. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), formerly known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides health insurance to low income children. Like Medicaid, it is federally mandated, but state run. Some states provide health insurance for…
The Stimulus Package, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), key goal was to boost a flagging economy. A number of the provisions in the $787 billion package went towards health care provisions. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that “the Act includes $149 billion in health spending of which $87 billion is…
Health Reform, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), drastically altered the health care landscape. Congress included health exchanges, and individual mandate, and a number of other reforms into the bill. Today, I focus on how Health Reform will affect existing programs which care for the nations poor. In particular, CHIP…
For many years, the Dartmouth Atlas has chronicled how variation in medical resource use across the country. Despite glaring differences in the cost and volume of care across the nation, regions with higher health care costs do not necessarily have better health outcomes. However, medical treatment is a two step process. First, the physician must…
In 2008, the federal government spent $782 billion on health care through the Medicare and Medicaid program. Below is a breakdown of the expenditures incurred by service product. Source: 2009 CMS Data Compendium.
How do changes in Medicare fees affect the quantity of medical care supplied by providers? A paper by Hadley and Reschovsky (2006) examine this question be estimating the elasticity of supply. They find the following: Medicare fees are positively related to both the number of beneficiaries treated (η=0.12–0.61) and service intensity (η=1.04–1.71). Physicians with apparent…
Do physicians cost shift after Medicare reduces reimbursement rates? A paper by Rice et al. (1999) examines whether or not this in fact occurred after Medicare reduced payment for surgical procedures in the late 1980s. To be more specific, “The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (OBRA-89) reduced Medicare physician payment rates for thirty-six groups…
What if Medicare spends reimburses physicians too generously for a certain service. Will reducing reimbursement for that service decrease utilization and cost? A study by Mitchell, Hadley and Gaskin (2002) attempts to answer this question by examining the impact of changing Medicare reimbursement for cataract surgeries. Between 1992 and 1994, Medicare decreased fees paid for…