End the Gag Rule

As Time Magazine reports, health care prices are fucked up.  Castlight is one company that is trying to shed some light on health care prices to improve transparency.  Their CEO, Giovanni Colella, write the following in Forbes: To start, health insurance companies should refuse to agree to “gag clauses” with hospitals who do not want their…

What does drug ‘price’ mean anyway?

How much do drugs cost?  The answer to this question depends who you are and how you want to measure cost.  For instance, MediSpan‘s Master Drug Data Base (MDDB) defines drugs prices as follows: Wholesaler Acquisition Cost (WAC) – the cost reported to Medi-Span by a manufacturer at which wholesalers purchase drug products from that…

Uwe Reinhardt on Hospital Prices

Health Economist Uwe Reinhardt supports expanding the DRG system to all payers.   “Under Medicare’s approach, hospitals are paid one price for an entire inpatient episode, rather than piece-rate (fee-for-service) for every single supply and service delivered in that episode…To eliminate the rampant price-discrimination inherent in current hospital pricing, all hospitals under this system would…

Slowing medical CPI may not last

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Medical CPI is only 3.2%.  This is less than the 4.1% average inflation rate over the past ten years and the 6.0% average medical inflation rate over the past 30 years.  In most markets, a slowing economy reduces demand and reduces prices (see the recent decline in oil…