Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Does physician compensation affect the quantity of medical care provided? My paper “Operating on Commission” claims that the answer is yes. I find that surgery rates increase 78% when patients switch from capitation to fee-for-service (FFS) specialists. A paper by Devlin and Sarma (2008) examines a similar question for Canadian family physicians. Since the inception…
Does an increase in family physicians (FPs) increase individual health? A naive research might believe that we could uncover whether or not this was true by comparing the average health levels of areas with lots of doctors with the average health levels of areas with few doctors. However, doctors often work where there are lots…
In the N.Y. Times, Sandeep Jauhar discuss the problems with P4P. Hat Tip: Cato-at-Liberty.
Yesterday I wrote about the problems with fragmented medical care in America. Is a single payer system the only solution? A Commonwealth Fund report shows that the single payer system is not the only path towards improved, more integrated care. What we want The report outlines six general improvements that need to be made to…
The U.S. healthcare system is one of the more fragmented systems in the world. Traditionally, economists believe that a splash of decentralized planning with a heap of free markets is a recipe for efficient outcomes. In the case of health care coordination, however, information sharing, and collaborative work are needed if quality is to improve…
The New York Times reports (“Doctor and Patient, Now at Odds“) that the doctor-patient relationship is suffering. Patients no longer place absolute trust in their doctor for a variety of reasons. On the physician side, patients know that doctors are pressured by insurance companies reimbursement mechanisms to have shorter office visits. Reports from the media…
According to U.S. Census projections, the number of individuals 65 and older will increase from 12.4% of the populations in 2000 to 20.7% of the population in 2050. With the expected incredible rise in the number of elderly in the U.S., one would expect a concurrent rise in the number of geriatricians. NPR’s Marketplace, however,…
Primary care physicians can be compensated in a number of ways. The most popular are capitation, fee-for-service, salary, or some mixture of the three. But how does the physician compensation method affect care levels? This is the question Gosden et al. (2000) try to answer in their Cochrane review. The authors search the literature for…
The controversy as to how much Medicare should pay doctors is continuing to brew (see N.Y. Times article). Congress passed a law overriding a pay cut to Medicare doctors. Although the president vetoed the bill, Congress garnered enough support to override the veto. Dr. Rich of The Covert Rationing Blog claims that the Medicare reimbursement…
When you are sick and need a doctor, you need hope that you are given the best care possible. Most people assume that doctors will tailor their treatments to the individual patient needs. However, a paper by Frank and Zeckhauser (JHE 2007) explain that this may not be the case. The authors claim that there…