THE SOURCE BLOG

Updated 10/11/19: Start of Trial further delayed to Monday, October 21 per 10/11 hearing regarding jury selection. By: Alex Montague, Graduate Research Fellow Opening arguments for the antitrust case against Sutter Health, set to begin Oct 10 at 10:15am in the Superior Court of San Francisco, were postponed today after the court expressed concern that there was an insufficient number of jurors available to move forward for the trial. Several jurors were absent for today’s trial due to medical conditions and various other reasons, with several more expressing that they …

By: Megan O’Leary, Student Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor On Thursday, April 4, The Source attended the “Antitrust in the New Millennium Symposium” hosted by UC Hastings College of the Law.  This blog focuses on the session “New Antitrust and Healthcare”, moderated by The Source Board member and UC Hastings Professor Thomas Greaney, and featuring the panel of, notably all women, UC Hastings Professor Robin Feldman, California Senior Assistant Attorney General Kathleen Foote, and American Antitrust Institute (AAI) President Diana L. Moss.   What drives rising healthcare prices?  Perhaps it stems …

By: Jake Winton, Student Fellow The times of healthcare, as Nobel laureate Bob Dylan would say – are a changin’.[1]  With annual U.S. health spending quickly approaching $4 trillion[2] and on track to be 20% of GDP[3] by 2026, we are in desperate need of change.  While most of the recent chatter around healthcare spending focused on regulatory reforms or reducing benefits offered by health plans, these discussions neglect one of the most effective levers of change – technology innovation.  Enter Amazon, a customer-centric delivery system that conquers industries by cutting …

By: Jake Winton, Student Fellow Welcome to October!  We hope you are getting your costumes picked out and finding those deals to stock up on trick-or-treat candy.  In this edition of The Source Roundup, we review five academic articles and reports from September that stood out to us.  This month we look at (1) price inflation in the California fully-insured large group market, (2) forward motion in drug price transparency laws, (3) the future of pharmaceutical reference pricing in the U.S., (4) lessons learned from California’s competitive healthcare model, and (5) …

By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow Happy April! In this edition of the Source Roundup, we cover five academic articles from February and March. The topics this month include: 1) a comparative look at US health care spending and 2) solutions to the rising cost of prescription drugs.   Comparative Look at US Health Care Spending In the JAMA article, “Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries,” authors Irene Papanicolas, Liana R. Woskie, and Ashish K. Jha compare health care spending in the United States with other …

By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow Many states are now moving to impose work requirements for Medicaid benefits, a process that has been in the works for quite some time under the Trump administration. Currently, two states have been approved to impose work requirements and several other states have applications pending. Here are some of the key events leading up to this point: On March 14, 2017, Seema Verma, the Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, (“CMS”) and Tom Price, the former Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary …

By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow On October 12, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order entitled “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States.” This order states that the Administration will focus on changing, among others areas, the regulations surrounding association health plans (AHPs). This blog post explores the expansion of association health plans and its consequences. Department of Labor’s Proposed New Rule The executive order specifically called upon the Department of Labor to allow more employers to participate in AHPs. As a result, on January 4, 2018, …

By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow Happy New Year! In this Roundup, we cover four articles from November and December 2017. The topics include 1) the rising cost of emergency care, 2) promoting price transparency through contract law, 3) the move towards value-based payment systems, and 4) government regulation to control prescription drug prices.   Rising Cost of Emergency Care As a part of a year-long investigation, Vox, working alongside the Health Care Cost Institute (“HCCI”), investigated the recent phenomenon of increased emergency room prices. In “Emergency Rooms Are Monopolies. Patients …

By: Grace Lee, Research Fellow Introduction Luke Whitbeck, 2, was born with Gaucher disease, a rare genetic disorder.[1] Before using the pharmaceutical drug Cerezyme,[2] “Luke frequently ran high fevers, tired easily, and was skinny all over, except his belly stuck out like a bowling ball.”[3] Fortunately, the drug effectively helped Luke manage his symptoms. His mom reports that “Luke now spends days playing with his big brother.”[4] Despite the bill of good health, the Whitbecks and their insurer struggle to pay for the high cost of the drug, which amounts …

By: Briana Moller, Student Fellow Trump Administration Has Eliminated CSR Payments On October 11, 2017, in a memo to the Department of Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Attorney General Jeff Sessions provided his legal opinion that Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments were unlawful. CSR payments reimburse insurance companies for losses in deductibles, copays, and coinsurance payments owed by lower income individuals in health plans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. The following day, Eric Hagan, the acting Secretary of HHS, announced that CSR payments …