Financing the efficient delivery of medical services while reducing costs for consumers as well as health care providers is among the most challenging domestic policy problems many countries face. RAND addresses health economics issues through innovative, high-profile research in an effort to improve the efficiency of health care organizations, reduce costs for providers and consumers, and improve financing in health care markets.
In its second term, the Obama Administration can restrain further health care spending growth—without compromising quality—by employing four broad strategies: fostering efficient and accountable providers, engaging and empowering consumers, promoting population health, and facilitating high-value innovation.
Journal Article
Innovative payment reform initiatives occur in both the public and private sector, but the optimal role in such reforms of the public sector, specifically the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is up for debate
Commentary
Don't forget—an American's odds of living a long and healthy life still depend more on his zip code than his genetic code. That won't change until we make healthcare more affordable, writes Dr. Arthur Kellermann.
Blog
Medication non-adherence affects up to 40 percent of older adults, especially those with chronic conditions, and is associated with poor outcomes, more hospitalizations, and higher mortality. A new paradigm that clarifies joint provider–patient responsibility is needed.
Commentary
A problem with using surveys to predict behavior is that they measure employer sentiment toward the ACA today, rather than the economic decisions employers typically make when the time comes, writes Art Kellermann.
Report
Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment has transformed HIV from a death sentence to a chronic condition, allowing patients to live longer and healthier lives. Options for reducing costs of ARV medications should be explored in order to allow more people to receive treatment.
Commentary
The bottom line is this: With or without the Affordable Care Act, the nation can no longer kick the can down the road on costs, writes Arthur Kellermann.
Commentary
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act is unquestionably historic, but there is a critical aspect of health care reform that still needs to be fixed. The nation needs to take decisive action to address the rising costs of health care, writes Arthur Kellermann.
Research Brief
If half of Americans with employer-sponsored insurance switched from a traditional health plan to a consumer-directed health plan, annual health care costs would fall by an estimated $57 billion.
Commentary
Before we allow others to implement policies attempting to optimize the use of physician time or reduce the amount of equivocal or inappropriate care, we need to understand what physicians think about these issues and what they are prepared to do about them, writes Robert H. Brook.
Blog
Physicians are in an ideal position to identify and eliminate health care waste by categorizing all medical services into four distinct types.
Research Brief
Current initiatives to report health care provider costs are unlikely to motivate consumers to select lower-cost providers. Public reports could better engage consumers by focusing on out-of-pocket costs and high-value providers.
Periodical
If the individual mandate requiring all Americans to have health insurance were eliminated, it would sharply reduce the number of people gaining coverage and slightly increase the cost for those who do buy policies through the new insurance exchanges.
Report
Testimony presented before the California State Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee on May 9, 2012.
Journal Article
If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually—about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly.
News Release
If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually—about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly.
Blog
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate, one of the questions being debated is what effect the mandate would have on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. A factor to consider in this is the effect the ACA would have on small businesses, which employ the majority of America's private-sector workforce.
Journal Article
Early treatment with IFNB-1b for a first clinical event suggestive of MS was found to improve patient outcomes while controlling costs.
Journal Article
Geriatricians were more efficient than other physicians in managing hospitalized elderly adults with medical DRGs frequently managed by geriatricians. This efficiency did not compromise patient outcomes.
Journal Article
Physician organizations (POs)—independent practice associations and medical groups—located in lower socioeconomic status (SES) areas may score poorly in pay-for-performance (P4P) programs.
Report
When enacting, implementing, and evaluating health care reform, policymakers should consider potential spillover effects on workers' compensation insurance. The experience of Massachusetts's heath care reform suggests that reform may reduce medical costs.
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