Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
An interesting post by Arnold Kling (“Doctors, Pharmaceuticals, and Statisticians“) reports on a randomized clinical trial which demonstrated that on average, angioplasties have no incremental health benefits once the patient is placed on multiple medications such as beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, statins and blood thinners. Dr. Kling writes: “Doctors think that they add value by giving…
Today, I will review an interesting article by Glied and Zivin (2002) examining how physicians adjust their practice style when the HMO share of patients changes (note: the authors implicitly assume all HMOs pay physicians via capitation). First we will look at the three theoretical models the authors develop. Models 1. Excess capacity model. The…
Today I will be briefly be reviewing four recent articles which examine how physician payment methods affect the amount of medical service provision. GP reimbursement in Ireland Madden, Nolan and Nolan (Health Econ 2005) use a quasi-experimental framework to see how changing physician compensation affects the number of doctors visits. In Ireland approximately 30% of…
There are two treatment options for patients with breast cancer. The first is a breast conserving surgery (BCS) which removes the cancerous lump (lumpectomy) followed by irradiation treatment. The second option is a mastectomy which removes the entire breast. Lecia Apantaku claims in the American Family Physician journal in 2002, that “survival rates following breast conservation…
In 1991 in the UK, the British began allowing general practitioners (GPs) to participate in a fundholding scheme. The fundholding program would reimburse GPs if the amount of chargeable elective secondary care procedures was below their budget and financially penalize the GPs if the amount of secondary care which their patients received exceeded their budget.…
Why do HMO patients receive less care than fee-for-service patients? Could it be that HMO patients are healthier (adverse selection) or that FFS compensation leads to increased demand for medical services (moral hazard)? A paper by Shen, et al. (2004) finds that one reason could be that physician compensation could affect a doctor’s desire to perform…