In this Events @ RAND podcast, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, delivers the 2018 Albert P. Williams Lecture on Health Policy. A former special advisor for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Emanuel explains why drug prices are so high and proposes a policy solution.
Featured Speaker
Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania
Efforts to encourage patient price shopping through access to price transparency tools have met with limited success. However, combining these tools with reference pricing simplifies decisionmaking by steering patients to low-priced providers and giving them a financial incentive to comply with the nudge.
Sixty percent of U.S. adults have at least one chronic condition, and 12 percent have five or more. They account for hundreds of billions of dollars in health care spending every year.
Patients with multiple long-term health conditions are more likely to report poorer experiences in primary care than those with fewer health problems. A patient-centered model that takes into account the severity of disease — and the impact of combinations of diseases, on patient quality of life and health care experiences — could make a difference.
