Does licensing increase prices for dentists?

Clearly the answer is yes. For many basic tasks, dentists and dental hygenists may perform task of similar quality. However, in some states, dental hygenists are not allowed to perform these tasks. A paper by Wing and Marier find the following: United States, occupational regulations influence the work tasks that may legally be performed by…

Regulating 23andMe

A number of companies, such as 23andMe, allow individuals to sequence their own genes in order to attempt to determine if they have an elevated risk for certian diseases. This sector has largely been unregulated…until now. The Economist reports, On November 22nd the FDA…sent a stern letter to 23andMe, a genetic-testing firm. Despite “more than…

What is value-based pricing?

Where has public policy gone in the last few years?  Popular policies include move towards more bundled payments, the creation of accountable care organizations, additional funding for comparative effectiveness research (CER), evidence-based medicine (EBM) and value-based purchasing programs that link payments to various quality metrics. With health care costs rising, payers are looking to decrease…

California Hospitals Charge Fair Prices to the Uninsured

Why is that?  Because in 2006 California passed the Hospital Fair Pricing Act.  Melnick and Fonkych (2013) describe the bill as follows. The Hospital Fair Pricing Act…mandated that hospitals develop formal, written financial assistance policies and limit the  prices they charge uninsured patients with low to moderate incomes…Under the law, hospitals must limit the amounts they collect from…

The Trade-offs of Healthcare Regulation

When a problem appears, politicians often call for more regulation. Wall Street collapses? Frank-Dodd. Health insurance doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions? PPACA. Need to protect patient privacy? HIPAA. But are there downsides to increased regulation? A paper by Cotet and Benjamin (2013) examines just this question. In particular, they examine the welfare implications of regulations that…

The end of the FDA?

When Alfred Caronia worked for a drug company, he promoted some drug’s off-label use. The Department of Justice did not take kindly to Caronia’s behavior and sued him for violating the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). He was convicted, but appealed the conviction. Caronia argued that this commercial speech is protected by the first…

What does a NICE health economist do?

What role do health economists at the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) play and how do they conduct their cost effectiveness analyses for new treatments? I answer this question today based on NICE’s own documents.  According to their guidelines manual, the role of the health economist in clinical guideline development is to:…

How to Survive a Plague

Last weekend, I watched the movie How to Survive a Plague.  The movie discusses the AIDS activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).  Although I am not a  movie critic (you can see reviews by professional critics here), I do want to discuss one key issue that the move discusses: should the FDA liberalize its…

Who gets hurt when Americans buy drugs in Canada?

A few years ago, changing federal laws to lower drug prices was a key political issue. Some proposed allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices from drug manufacturers and others recommended allowing U.S. citizens to import drugs from lower-priced developed countries such as Canada. These policies would certainly reduce drug prices, however, lower prices could also…

“Child Pornography is Great!”

What is it great for?  Censorship.  A book called The Pirate Organization quotes  a spokesperson for an intellectual property lobby in Denmark: Child pornography is great! It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that we can…