End-of-life medical expenses are a significant proportion of all health care expenditures. These costs were studied using costs of services from Medicare claims and cause of death (CoD) from death certificates. In the absence of a unique identifier linking the two datasets, common variables...

Evidence from behavioral economics reveals that decision-making in health care settings can be affected by circumstances and choice architecture. This paper conducts an analysis of choice of private Medicare plans (Medicare Advantage plans) in Miami-Dade County. We provide a detailed description...

Medicare currently allows beneficiaries to choose between a government-run health plan and a privately- administered program known as Medicare Advantage (MA). Because enrollment in MA is optional, conventional observational estimates of the program's impact are potentially subject to selection...

To identify the important tradeoffs in consulting a single expert for both diagnosis and treatment, we examine the costs and health outcomes of elderly Medicare beneficiaries with coronary artery disease. We compare the empirical consequences of diagnosis by cardiologists who can provide...

What are the important tradeoffs in consulting a single expert for both diagnosis and treatment? On one hand, an integrated diagnostician may have the incentive to recommend treatments that are not in the buyer's best interests. On the other hand, joint production of diagnosis and treatment by...