There are inadequate consumer protections from harmful medical billing practices that result in unavoidable, unexpected, and often financially devastating medical bills. The problem stems from increasing cost shifting to patients underway in American health care and the inordinate complexity...

The medical community often argues that physician fear of legal liability increases health care spending. Theoretically, though, the effect could be positive or negative, and empirical evidence has supported both cases. Previous empirical work, however, has ignored the fact that physicians face...

This report focuses on three major state law issues: tort liability, scope of practice, and the corporate practice of medicine doctrine. The authors argue that statutory and regulatory schemes need to be re-examined to ensure that Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) can form. For example,...

Very few industries are as profoundly influenced by regulation as the pharmaceutical industry. All aspects of the life-cycle of new drugs are regulated, from patent application, to marketing approval, commercial exploitation, patent expiration and competition with generics. The nature of demand...

Governments and firms often use committees of experts to help them make complexdecisions, but conflicts of interest could bias experts' recommendations. We focus on whetherfinancial ties to drug companies bias FDA drug advisory committee (AC) members' voting ondrug approval recommendations. We...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) builds on the employment-based health insurance system which is the bedrock of health insurance coverage for most Americans. When these Americans experience a change in their work or family lives, they are at risk for losing their job-based health insurance...

This report surveys some of the largest challenges to Accountable Care Organization (ACO) formation and outlines how the federal government can do more to clear the path for coordinated care. Safety-net health providers will be affected by a host of unique issues as ACOs emerge, from lack of...

A versão em português deste texto está disponível em: "http://ssrn.com/abstract=2441607" http://ssrn.com/abstract=2441607 La versione italiana di questo documento è disponibile all'indirizzo: "http://ssrn.com/abstract=2607031" http://ssrn.com/abstract=2607031La versión en español de este...

Comparing the safety of prescription drugs over time is difficult due to the paucity of reliable quantitative measures of drug safety. Both the academic literature and popular press have focused on drug withdrawals as a proxy for breakdowns in the drug safety system. This metric, however, is...