To Ignore or Not to Ignore Non-Response Bias

From Davern (2013): …the three surveys studied showed that for the same total survey budget approximately twice the effective sample size (e.g., from 10,000 to 20,000 effective sample size completed responses) could be obtained if a less aggressive protocol were followed and the research team were willing to accept an approximately 40 percent lower response…

Physician Visits in Germany

Will the Affordable Care Act’s reduced reimbursement rates for providers serving the publicly insured make the U.S. look like Germany?  Maybe.  Let me explain why. Background on health insurance in Germany A JHE study by Hendrik Schmitz provides some insight regarding the German health insurance system and a reform in 1997. German physicians are remunerated…

Fisher’s Exact Test

How can one tell if two variables are related?  If you have continuous variables, one can calculate a correlation.  What if one is analyzing a 2×2 contingency table?   What are is the likelihood of observing just such a distribution assuming the probability of being in the two groups is known? One way to determine this…

Cost of Cancer in Europe

In 2008, 2.45 million people were diagnosed with cancer and 1.23 million died because of cancer in the European Union (EU). What is the economic burden of cancer?  A paper by Luengo-Fernandez (2013) aims to estimate just this quantity.  They find that: Cancer cost the EU €126 billion in 2009…Across the EU, the health-care costs…

Medicaid and HIX plans may overlap

Consumers in 30 states (60%) will have the option of at least one plan operating as both a qualified health plan (QHP) in the health insurance exchange (HIX) and as a Medicaid managed care organization (MMCO), according to an Avalere analysis. In these states, Medicaid beneficiaries may be able to enroll in a plan offered…