HEALTHCARE SYSTEM REFORM
Academic Articles & Reports Round Up: March 2016
Elizabeth Nicholson, Research Fellow April 1, 2016
Happy Spring! A common theme among the healthcare articles and reports, published in March, was payment reimbursement systems (fee-for-service versus value-based systems) and Accountable Care Organizations (“ACOs”). In addition, typical healthcare topics were also reported on. These include healthcare cost|insurance cost|healthcare competition|and suggested improvements for the United States healthcare system. As a bonus, a few articles and reports focused on healthcare cost and competition issues in other countries. FEE-FOR-SERVICE REIMBURSEMENT MODEL Health Affairs posted an article entitled Fee-For-Service, While Much Maligned, Remains the Dominant Payment Method for Physician Visits. The article’s …
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Academic Articles & Reports Round-Up: February 2016
Elizabeth Nicholson, Research Fellow February 29, 2016
Although February’s literature was light in quantity, it was high in quality. The bulk of February’s articles and reports focused heavily on marketplace competition, healthcare consolidation, healthcare cost, pharmaceutical price reform initiatives, bundled payments, and high-deductible health plans. MARKETPLACE COMPETITION The Commonwealth Fund published an issue brief entitled Implementing the Affordable Care Act: Promoting Competition in the Individual Marketplace. In its brief, the Commonwealth Fund explores how the ACA has influenced individual healthcare marketplaces in Kansas, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Washington.[1] To understand the impact the ACA has had in …
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FTC Closed Out 2015 Focusing on Provider Mergers with Mighty Market Shares
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor January 11, 2016
The FTC closed out 2015 with a number of actions aimed at anticompetitive provider combinations. Hospital mergers were the primary focus, with three hospital merger challenges filed in the last two months of 2015, but they were not the only providers subject to challenge, as the FTC also settled over an allegedly anticompetitive merger with two specialty physicians practices in late December. The challenged hospital mergers involved providers in the Huntington, West Virginia, Chicago, Illinois, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania areas. Pennsylvania was also where the FTC challenged the merger of orthopedics practices. …
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Academic Articles & Reports Roundup: December 2015
Elizabeth Nicholson, Research Fellow January 4, 2016
Happy New Year! As 2015 wrapped up, many interesting and comprehensive healthcare studies, on a variety of topics, yielded results that will likely propel healthcare research, policy, and legislation in the new year. At the heart of these studies were the ACA, healthcare cost and value, cost transparency, and hospital competition. Enjoy! ACA Positive ACA Effects Health Affairs published Affordable Care Act Provision Lowered Out-Of-Pocket Cost And Increased Colonoscopy Rates Among Men In Medicare. The authors, two economists, analyzed colonoscopy rates pre- and post-ACA. The authors found that, post-ACA, annual …
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Academic Articles & Reports Round-Up: November 2015
Elizabeth Nicholson, Research Fellow December 2, 2015
We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, full of friends, family, and cheer! November yielded some interesting articles and perspectives on health care markets and consolidation, price transparency, payment reform, prescription drug pricing, more ACA litigation, and health care spending. Enjoy! HEALTH CARE MARKETS/CONSOLIDATION Multiple articles discussed the effects of health care markets and consolidation on various health care entities. Early in November, the Alliance for Health Reform published an article entitled Health Care Consolidation. The article uses numbers and statistics to paint a vivid picture of the increase in …
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Academic Articles & Reports Round-up: October 2015
Elizabeth Nicholson, Research Fellow November 2, 2015
We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! October provided a high volume of articles focused on an array of topics related to healthcare price and competition, so bear with us! One JAMA article, in particular, provided an umbrella view of the October healthcare literature. The article, entitled Insurers Again at Odds With Hospitals and Physicians, provides a historical analysis of the tension between health insurers and physicians/hospitals/pharmaceutical companies from the perspective of Harvard Economics Professor David M. Cutler, PhD. Dr. Cutler argues that what’s at the heart of the United States’ …
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Source Executive Editor Jaime King co-authors Report on ACOs
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor October 19, 2015
Source Executive Editor Jaime King co-authored a new report with researchers at the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, titled State Actions to Promote and Restrain Commercial Accountable Care Organizations. The reports abstract reads: Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), originally developed as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have grown in both the public and private sectors. Commercial ACOs have the potential to improve healthcare quality and patient outcomes while achieving cost savings. However, they may also present …
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Academic Articles & Reports Roundup: September 2015
Elizabeth Nicholson, Research Fellow October 1, 2015
With fall comes sweeping change—and the health care price and competition fields were no exception this year. September’s literature focused most heavily on: 1) health care and insurance competition|2) pharmaceutical drug pricing|and 3) Medicare/Medicare Advantage. Health care and insurance competition took center stage in September. Subcommittees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committees held multiple hearings on various competition topics. Numerous stakeholder representatives testified at each hearing—including, as you’ve probably already heard, The Source’s very own Executive Editor, Jaime King! Each of the witnesses’ Prepared Statements from …
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Academic Articles and Reports Round-Up: August 2015
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor August 31, 2015
The end of summer is always so bittersweet. As the long days filled with sun, swimming, and a bit more time for family and fun wind down, they are replaced with an undeniable excitement in the air. A promise of new opportunities and endless possibilities seems to accompany the start of the new school year. As you gear up for the fall, the August Roundup has all you need to catch up on your reading on healthcare price and competition. The August literature focused on three key topics: 1) Medicare …
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Academic Articles & Reports Round Up: July 2015
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor July 31, 2015
In July, insurance mergers were all the rage. Anthem-Cigna, Aetna-Humana, the Big 5 becoming the Big 3, you’ve heard all about it. The DOJ and House Judiciary Committee have plans to look into the impact of these potential mergers on health insurance markets, and The Source will be there to keep you posted. In the meantime, check out the following articles and reports that came out in July. If you can’t get enough of the health insurance merger discussion, we’ve got a few things to whet your appetite. Thomas “Tim” …
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