Direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals has led to questions of whether consumers benefit from the additional drug information, or are harmed by being induced to pursue prescriptions that are unnecessary or even dangerous. We conducted an empirical study of the relation between...

This paper deals with the question how to model health effects after the cessation of a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Using clinical trial data on severe congestive heart failure patients we illustrate how survival beyond the cessation of a RCT can be predicted based on parametric survival...

This report presents a computer model for evaluating the cost-effectiveness (CE) of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). The model is an extension of a previous model and includes also the risk of spine and wrist fracture. New Swedish data on risk of coronary heart disease and related mortality...

The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) signature accomplishment was the creation of a statutory right to health care for the uninsured. The ambition and the degree of societal and political debate leading up to the Act’s passage suggests it is a “superstatute,” a rare breed of statute that...

Despite its laudable intent, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) is broken. The VICP is designed to compensate those injured or killed by vaccines. The problem is that the current practice in the VICP allows private attorneys to withdraw from a case before any decision is...

Hospital prices are almost completely irrational. They bear no relationship to the cost of providing the services, they are opaque, and the prices vary wildly among hospitals and payers. The craziness of hospital pricing was laid bare when the federal government released data on hospital charges...

In the UK government austerity policies have been suggested to lie behind an unexplained rise in deaths since 2011. This document outlines evidence which suggests that austerity does not lie behind the rise in deaths, and presents a series of research questions which must be answered before...

We develop a stylized principal-agent model with moral hazard and adverse selection to provide a unified framework for understanding some of the most salient features of the recent physician payment reform in Ontario and its impact on physician behavior. These features include: (1) physicians...

This paper compares the cost and quality incentive effects of cost reimbursement and prospective payment systems in the health industry when providers are altruistic. Providers' behavioral rule is governed by a desire to maximize a weighted sum of profit and consumers' health benefit. When...

This paper traces the relationship between insurance coverage and the technology-induced shift of the locus of medical care and medical spending from the inpatient to the outpatient setting. This shift was accompanied by an increase in the extent of private insurance coverage for outpatient...