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.
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
This study assesses, from a Swedish societal perspective, the cost effectiveness of interferon β-1b (IFNB-1b) after an initial clinical event suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS) (ie, early treatment) compared with treatment after onset of clinically definite MS (CDMS) (ie, delayed treatment).
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.
BLOG
A new RAND study finds that rising health care costs reduce the availability of and enrollment in employment-based private health insurance, and the financial protection provided by it, especially for middle class families.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This study estimated how healthy people value insurance coverage of specialty drugs, defined as high-cost drugs that treat cancer and other serious health conditions like multiple sclerosis, by quantifying willingness to pay via a survey.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The higher-cost US system of cancer care delivery may be worth it, although further research is required to determine what specific tools or treatments are driving improved cancer survival in the United States.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Public reporting of health care costs is intended to motivate consumers to choose lower cost providers, and motivate providers to lower costs to retain market share. Measures should be chosen based on which pathway policymakers intend to influence.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The need is urgent to bring US health care costs into a sustainable range for both public and private payers.
COMMENTARY
What do we have to show for all of this spending? Lots of testing and treatment, but not enough health, writes Art Kellermann.
REPORT
This report is the result of an evaluation of the 16 DH integrated care pilots (ICPs).
REPORT
This report contains appendices to the result of an evaluation of the 16 DH integrated care pilots (ICPs).
REPORT
This report is a summary of the result of an evaluation of the 16 DH integrated care pilots (ICPs).
COMMENTARY
If the individual mandate were ruled unconstitutional, subsidies and the age structure of premiums should keep enough healthy people in the insurance exchanges to prevent huge spikes in premiums, write Carter C. Price and Christine Eibner.
RESEARCH BRIEF
The use of dedicated anesthesia providers for routine gastroenterology (GI) procedures is seen as medically justifiable only for high-risk patients. Eliminating these services for low-risk patients could generate $1.1 billion in savings per year.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The use of dedicated anesthesia providers for routine gastroenterology (GI) procedures is seen as medically justifiable only for high-risk patients. Eliminating these services for low-risk patients could generate $1.1 billion in savings per year.
NEWS RELEASE
Use of anesthesia providers to monitor sedation during screening colonoscopies and other outpatient gastroenterology procedures more than doubled from 2003 to 2009 in the United States, with most of the increase among low-risk patients who may not need this service.
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