Cost Containment
The Source Roundup: May 2018 Edition
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor May 1, 2018
Happy May! In this edition of the Source Roundup, we cover four academic articles and reports from March and April. The topics this month include: 1) the unfilled promise of price transparency to encourage price shopping, 2) FDA’s actions on prescription drug prices, 3) the phenomenon of overpayment for prescription drugs, and 4) results of Maryland’s All-Payer global hospital budgeting program. Unfulfilled Promise of Price Transparency to Encourage Price ShoppingIn Promise and Reality of Price Transparency, a health policy report published by the New England Journal of Medicine, authors Ateev Mehrotra, Michael …
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The Source Roundup: April 2018 Edition
Source Fellow April 2, 2018
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 …
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Single-Payer vs. Public Option: Can Either System Address Rising Health Care Prices?
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher March 29, 2018
In February 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released data that National Health Expenditures accounted for 17.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GPD) and exceeded $10,300 per person. Even more alarming, CMS predicts that health expenditures will increase at an average rate of 5.5%, faster than inflation or increase in GPD, so that by 2026, health care will cost almost 20% of GDP. As a result of escalating costs of health care and increasing cost-sharing and co-pays for individual patients, those on the left of the political spectrum …
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California Legislature Turns Focus on High Drug Pricing
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher March 21, 2018
Last month, we reviewed how the California Assembly is trying to understand cost drivers of healthcare overall. As California has the highest retail drug spending with prescription drug expenditures outpacing overall healthcare spending, high drug pricing has become a specific concern for the Legislature.[1] For the past few years, the Legislature has used bills[2] (like SB 17 (2017)), resolutions (like SJR 29 (2015)), and informational hearings to better understand and control high drug pricing. For example, the Assembly Health Committee (“Committee”) began a series of hearings to understand prescription drug …
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States’ Rights: A Patent Law Analysis of NASHP Rate Setting Model Act
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor March 15, 2018
The Source recently contributed to a white paper published by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) that weighs in on whether state drug rate-setting legislation violates patent law. The Source’s Managing Editor Amy Y. Gu and Senior Research Fellow Katie Gudiksen, along with a team of legal experts at the Institute for Innovation Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, explored in States’ Rights: A Patent Law Analysis of NASHP Rate Setting Model Act what states can do to address the rising cost of …
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Special California Assembly Hearings Provide Insights and Solutions to Increasing Healthcare Costs
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher February 20, 2018
After the public outcry following last year’s tabling of SB 562 (Lara), which would have created a single-payer program in California, a special California Assembly committee was formed. The Assembly Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage began hearings in late October 2017 and adjourned on February 7th, 2018. While much of the hearings was a crash course on health insurance, some of them addressed high healthcare prices. This month, we will summarize two of the hearings that focused on understanding the origins of high healthcare pricing …
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Interesting California Bills that Did Not End Up on the Governor’s Desk This Year
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher October 11, 2017
The California legislature has finished up the first year of a two-year legislative cycle. While enrolled bills await the Governor’s signature, today’s article will discuss three bills that are still pending in the legislature and why they should pass. These bills include granting a state agency the authority to approve all mergers and acquisitions involving a health care plan (AB 595), developing a commission to examine health care access and affordability (AB 1643), and preventing hospitals from imposing anti-competitive contract provisions (SB 538). AB 595 (Wood): If this bill passed, …
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Drug Money Part 3: How do International Drug-Pricing Policies compare to U.S. Policies?
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher September 27, 2017
Introduction As discussed in earlier Drug Money Issue Briefs, spending on pharmaceuticals is a large and growing concern in the United States and the world. In 2013, the countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) spent $800 billion, accounting for nearly 20% of all health expenditures.[1] Even among OECD countries, however, the U.S. stands out for large spending on pharmaceuticals. In 2014, the U.S. spent $1,112 per capita on pharmaceuticals – more than double the average spending for the countries in the OECD and ~40% more than …
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Academic Articles & Reports Roundup: August 2017
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher September 1, 2017
Happy September! In this Roundup, we cover four articles from July and August. The topics this month include (1) how states could use the excise tax to discourage forum shopping by insurance plans, (2) the effect of reference pricing on consumers’ drug selection, (3) proposals to promote the use of cost-effective technology in insurance, and (4) possible barriers that prevent consumers from seeking out price information. How States Could Use the Excise Tax to Discourage Forum Shopping by Insurance Plans In How States Can Respond to the AHCA: Using …
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Drug Money Part 2: A Look at 2017 State Legislative Efforts to Reduce Prescription Drug Prices
Source Fellow August 3, 2017
By: Katie Beyer, Student Fellow INTRODUCTION It is no secret that drug prices have been rising at an alarming rate. In fact, spending on prescription drugs rose 12.4% in 2014 and 9% in 2015.[1] In 2015, the U.S. spent $457 billion on prescription drugs, which accounted for 16.7% of overall healthcare services.[2] In 2016, Americans filled 4.4 billion drug prescriptions, at a total cost of approximately $400 billion.[3] On average, Americans spend $1,370 out of pocket on prescription drugs per year.[4] With an average annual price increase of approximately 10% over …
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