Center for Healthcare Economics and Policy brochure
Check out FTI Consulting’s Center for Healthcare Economics and Policy‘s new services sheet here. The cover page and overview of some of our HEOR services are below. More details on the full scope of health economics services that we offer can be found here. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/center-for-healthcare-economics-and.html October 19, 2021 at 08:45AM
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Friday Links
via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/friday-links_15.html October 16, 2021 at 12:45PM
The impact of public health efforts on US Mortality
Research by D. Mark Anderson, Kerwin Kofi Charles & Daniel I. Rees in the NBER report provides some useful graphs looking at how various public health interventions have impacted health outcomes in the U.S over the last century. Specifically, the authors show that public health interventions aimed at improving the health of the municipal water supply had large impacts on both mortality for some groups, illness, and inequality of health outcomes. Regarding the latter point, the authors find that:
More details are available here. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-impact-of-public-health-efforts-on.html October 15, 2021 at 04:45PM
2021 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Card, Angrist and Imbens
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens due to their work on “natural experiments” and how this econometric technique can inform important research questions in labor economics. From the Nobel Prize press release:
Difference-in-difference. One well-known natural experiment examined how minimum wage laws affects labor markets. A paper Card and Krueger (1994) compared nearby fast food restaurants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Fast food restaurants in the former state experienced a change in minimum wage laws whereas the latter did not. Card and Kruger look at the change in employment in NJ and compare it to changes in employment in PA. They stated that there was “no indication that the rise in the minimum wage reduced employment”. Instrumental variables. Angrist and Imbens (1991) used instrumental variables (IV) to answer a number of questions such as examining returns to school. Alex Tabarrok provides a nice overview of how discrete cutoffs (e.g., ability to start school if born before Jan 1, but not if born after; ability to leave school at age 16), provide an exogenous source of variation on the months of education. Another canonical IV example pioneered by Angrist is the study [Angrist 1990] looking at the impact of military service on lifetime earnings. Since characteristics that predict military service may predict earnings as well, ideally one would randomize people into military services vs. not. Of course, this type of randomization is not feasible, but instead Angrist used information on an individuals’ Vietnam draft lottery number as an exogenous source of variation. The IV approach allows one to estimate the local average treatment effect (LATE) for compliers (i.e., those would would join the army if drafted, but would not join if not drafted). Using this IV approach, Angrist finds that “the earnings of white veterans were approximately 15 percent less than the earnings of comparable nonveterans”. Angrist also has a nice, short book on econometrics with Jörn-Steffen Pischke titled Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion. There is lots more coverage if you’re interested: Krugman at NYT, CNN, FoxNews, BBC, Bloomberg. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/2021-nobel-prize-in-economics-goes-to.html October 13, 2021 at 03:45AM
Which health systems are providing low value care?
That is the question posted by Ganguli et al. (2021). The define low value care as one of 41 specific services. They then use data across 556 health systems serving more than 11m beneficiaries to answer this question. Which types of low value care are most commonly used?
Health system characteristics associated with increased rates of low value care include:
Quality of care includes both positive and negative actions; that is performing high-quality, high-value services and avoiding low-quality, low-value services. While this study only examines one side of this coin, it does show that there is still room to improve to reduce the use of low-value services. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/which-health-systems-are-providing-low.html October 11, 2021 at 03:45PM
Friday Reading
via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/friday-reading.html October 09, 2021 at 07:45AM
Should policymakers use a social discount rate?
Discount rates are commonly used in the world of finance. Would you rather have $1 today or $1 in 5 years? Most people would prefer $1 today. For instance, if you had $1 today and put it in a bank account, it would be worth more than $1 in 5 years. Thus, when making financial decisions, firms and many individuals consider funds received today to be more valuable than those in the future. An important question is, should we use a social discount rate? For instance, consider the impact of global warming. Averting global warming will have immediate costs but the benefits would accrue to future generations. Should we use a social discount rate to “discount” the benefits received by future generations in any cost-benefit analysis? According to a paper by Cowan and Parfit (1992) argue that a social discount rate should not be used when making policy decisions. Their logic is as follows:
Perhaps the best argument is just to implement the math.
The paper continues with economic arguments against a social discount rate (e.g., opportunity cost, marginal productivity of capital, positive time preferences) as well as some challenges in using altruism or bequests to justify a social discount rate. Do read the whole article. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/should-policymakers-use-social-discount.html October 08, 2021 at 03:45PM
Quotation of the Day
Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/ via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/quotation-of-day.html October 08, 2021 at 08:45AM
GAO Report on MIPS
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) last week published a report evaluating the Merit-based MIPS PROGRAM BACKGROUND
RESULTS OF GAO MIPS ANALYSIS How did Medicare physicians fare on the MIPS program? GAO writes:
STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK Unsurprisingly, provider groups welcomed more flexibility. For instance, some provider groups received exemptions from reporting along certain dimensions (e.g., radiologists and pathologists did not have to report “promoting interoperability”). Smaller provider groups also appreciated the “small practice bonus” and the low volume threshold which exempted the smallest providers from MIPS participation. Key critiques include: that feedback was not timely or meaningful to many providers.
MIPS VALUE PATHWAY (MVP) To address some challenges, CMS’s 2022 proposed rule plans to implement the MIPS Value Pathway (MVP) in performance year 2023.
The MVP framework would also standardize performance measurement across selected specialties, medical conditions, or episodes of care. A more cohesive set of measures can help reduce the amount of “gaming” the system that providers can do. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/gao-report-on-mips.html October 05, 2021 at 09:45AM
Nobel Prize in Medicine
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.” Here is a summary of Professor Julius’ contribution from the BBC:
And a summary of Professor Patapoutian’s contributions.
More coverage can be found at the N.Y. Times, Washington Post, Reuters and elsewhere. Via Dental Tips http://www.rssmix.com/via Blogger http://jeanxrussell.blogspot.com/2021/10/nobel-prize-in-medicine.html October 04, 2021 at 11:46PM |