Over the last decade, the U.S. Medicare program has added new billing codes to enhance the financial rewards for Chronic Care Management and Transitional Care Management. We show that the take-up of these new billing codes is gradual and exhibits substantial variations across markets and...

Over the last decade, the U.S. Medicare program has added new billing codes to enhance the financial rewards for Chronic Care Management and Transitional Care Management. We show that the take-up of these new billing codes is gradual and exhibits substantial variations across markets and...

Like other countries seeking a progressive path to universalism, Peru has attempted to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare by granting the poor entitlement to tax-financed basic care without charge. We identify the impact of this policy by comparing the target populationś change in...

The recent final rule on Medicaid managed care establishes the minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) requirement for Medicaid managed care and contains several provisions to strengthen delivery and payment reforms and improve efficiency and quality of care. Accordingly, this research examines the...

Within the context of Medicare’s enunciated triple aims of better health, better care, and lower costs, we examine the effectiveness of medical loss ratio (MLR) on health outcomes of Medicare Advantage insurers. We simultaneously examine the effect of an efficiency measure for the insurer...

Most Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries must complete a 5-month waiting period before they become entitled to DI cash benefits and an additional 24-month waiting period before Medicare benefits begin. The Accelerated Benefits (AB) demonstration is a randomized experiment...

We use a calibrated stochastic life-cycle model of endogenous health spending, asset accumulation and retirement to investigate the causes behind the increase in health spending and life expectancy over the period 1965-2005. We estimate that technological change along with the increase in the...

This paper analyzes the potential unintended consequences and incentive effects of the Affordable Care Act's minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations, which are designed to guarantee that a specific percentage of health insurance premiums are spent on medical care and activities that improve...

Background: Smoking causes higher incidence of certain diseases and greater severity of most health conditions. Smokers and recent quitters have higher health care utilization than never smokers and long-term quitters; as a result, smoking causes an increase in health care costs. This raises the...

This paper examines the tradeoffs of monitoring for wasteful public spending. By penalizing unnecessary spending, monitoring improves the quality of public expenditure and incentivizes firms to invest in compliance technology. I study a large Medicare program that monitored for unnecessary...