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.
Research Brief
Summarizes a RAND analysis of how opting out of Medicaid expansion would affect insurance coverage and spending and whether alternative policy options -- such as partial Medicaid expansion -- could cover as many people at lower costs to states.
Blog
The dependent coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act is working as intended, say Andrew Mulcahy and Katherine Harris. In 2011, it spared individuals and hospitals from $147 million in emergency room costs.
Report
Physician payment policy is shifting from one that incentivizes the delivery of more services without regard to quality or outcomes to one that incentivizes the delivery of high quality, resource conscious health care. Thoughtful incentive design can ease the transition process for both physicians and the Medicare program.
Report
The report reviews approaches to pharmaceutical pricing in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain to inform better understanding of the role of external reference pricing and its relevance to the UK.
News Release
States that choose not to expand Medicaid under federal health care reform will leave millions of their residents without health insurance and increase spending on the cost of treating uninsured residents, at least in the short term.
Journal Article
States that choose not to expand Medicaid under federal health care reform will leave millions of their residents without health insurance and increase spending on the cost of treating uninsured residents, at least in the short term.
Report
Workplace wellness programs are becoming quite common, and employers are optimistic about their benefits. However, such programs must be well-executed to have a meaningful effect on employee health, and significant reductions in health care cost may take time to materialize.
Journal Article
A new federal law allowing young adults to remain on their parents' medical insurance through age 25 has shielded them, their families, and hospitals from the full financial consequences of serious medical emergencies.
News Release
A new federal law allowing young adults to remain on their parents' medical insurance through age 25 has shielded them, their families, and hospitals from the full financial consequences of serious medical emergencies.
Periodical
Dementia costs Americans hundreds of billions of dollars per year, and the annual cost could top half a trillion by 2040 due to the “graying” of the U.S. population. This infographic shows the soaring economic costs and caseload of dementia.
Report
Emergency departments account for a rising proportion of hospital admissions and serve increasingly as an advanced diagnostic center for primary care physicians. While often targeted as the most expensive place to get medical care, emergency rooms remain an important safety net for Americans who cannot get care elsewhere.
News Release
Hospital emergency departments play a growing role in the U.S. health care system, accounting for a rising proportion of hospital admissions and serving increasingly as an advanced diagnostic center for primary care physicians.
Research Brief
This brief summarizes a RAND analysis of the role of that hospital emergency departments may come to play in either contributing to or reducing the rising costs of health care.
Research Brief
RAND Europe co-led an evaluation of 16 varied pilot projects initiated by the Department of Health (England) as a means to explore new ways of integrating patient care from different local provider.
News Release
The rising cost of Medicare can be cut through strategies such as increasing premiums and raising the eligibility age, but those moves could drive many elderly Americans from the program, leaving them with limited access to health services.
Journal Article
The rising cost of Medicare can be cut through strategies such as increasing premiums and raising the eligibility age, but those moves could drive many elderly Americans from the program, leaving them with limited access to health services.
Commentary
It is time for the government in partnership with industry to return to the drawing board to craft a plan that will provide protection for the more than 9 million people who will need care for dementia by 2040, writes Michael D. Hurd.
Report
Identifying the costs of dementia is challenging because persons who have it are likely to have co-existing chronic health problems, making isolating the costs among other costs difficult. Also, it is unclear how to attribute a monetary cost to informal caregiving.
Content
With the complex process of implementing the ACA underway, RAND research is tracking the progress of implementation and assessing the potential consequences of choices facing federal and state governments, employers, families, and individuals.
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