RAND Research Topic: Health Care Costs

Bundled Payments for Surgical Procedures With Copay Waivers Creates Substantial Cost Savings

2021-03-01T19:00:00Z

Providing patients discounts for using medical providers that agree to charge one set price for expensive procedures such as knee replacement surgery can result in savings for both patients and payers.

Impact of Policy Options for Reducing Hospital Prices Paid by Private Health Plans

2021-02-18T00:01:00Z

The authors analyze the spending impact of policy options to reduce hospital prices paid by private health plans, with various design choices and effectiveness levels for each approach.

Expert Insights: U.K. Public Preferences for Funding NHS and Social Care

2021-04-29T10:00:00Z

Jon Sussex, chief economist at RAND Europe, is joined by senior analyst Hui Lu in a discussion about their study on how the U.K. public thinks funding for the National Health Service (NHS) and social care should be raised.

Reducing Hospital Spending: Three Policy Options

2021-04-21T08:45:00Z

RAND researchers have estimated the effects of policy options to reduce hospital prices paid by private health plans, outlining design choices and effectiveness levels for each approach.

Barriers to Price and Quality Transparency in Health Care Markets

2021-04-19T09:00:00Z

RAND researchers gathered information on how health care prices are set, price variation in health care markets, barriers to price and quality transparency for consumers, and the extent to which price and quality information is used in marketing.

U.S. Prescription Drug Prices Are 2.5 Times Those in Other Countries

2021-04-14T09:00:00Z

U.S. prices for prescription drugs were 250 percent of those in 32 comparison countries combined. Brand-name drugs drive the disparity: U.S. prices for this category were 344 percent higher. However, U.S. prices for unbranded generics were lower than those in other countries.

Evaluation of an Intervention to Reduce Low-Value Preoperative Care for Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery at a Safety-Net Health System

2021-04-09T09:15:00Z

To evaluate a multipronged intervention to reduce low-value preoperative care for patients undergoing cataract surgery and analyze costs from various fiscal perspectives.

RAND Research on Drug Pricing

2021-04-05T10:02:00Z

Most Americans agree prescription drug prices are too high. As prescription drug prices continue to increase in United States, policymakers have been examining ways to address this issue.

Cost Evaluation of Integrating Local HIV and Housing Data to Facilitate Service Coordination in Four Demonstration Sites

2021-03-12T09:00:00Z

As part of the evaluation of a federal initiative to integrate HIV medical and housing data at four local jurisdictions in the U.S., we estimated the financial costs of implementing data integration occurring from June 2016 to August 2018.

Bundled Payments for Surgical Procedures With Copay Waivers Creates Substantial Cost Savings

2021-03-01T19:00:00Z

How to Improve Access and Control Costs in the TRICARE Prescription Drug Benefit

2021-02-26T16:48:00Z

Like other providers of prescription drug coverage, TRICARE uses benefit design, formulary, and other tools to strike a balance between access to prescription drugs for beneficiaries and spending. How might TRICARE further improve access, control costs, or both?

10Plan, How Would It Affect Health Care Spending by Consumers and the Federal Government

2021-02-25T08:30:00Z

The 10Plan is a self-pay plan for individuals currently uninsured or covered by a private nongroup health insurance plan. The authors built a microsimulation model to estimate health care spending under both the status quo and the 10Plan.

Private U.S. Health Plans Pay Hospitals 247 Percent of What Medicare Would Pay

2021-02-24T08:30:00Z

RAND researchers used data from 49 states and Washington, D.C., to assess hospital prices paid by private health plans. Data sources included $33.8 billion in spending from 3,112 community hospitals—more than half of community hospitals nationwide.

Measures and Methodology for International Comparisons of Health Care System Performance

2021-02-24T08:30:00Z

RAND researchers worked with 15 experts in quality measurement, clinical care, and health economics to generate potential measure constructs that could improve the U.S. ability to learn from international comparisons of health system performance.

Policy Options for Reducing Hospital Prices Paid by Private Health Plans

2021-02-18T15:30:00Z

Hospital spending--the largest health spending category in the United States--accounts for one-third of national health expenditures. In 2018, U.S. hospital spending totaled $1.2 trillion. A new RAND report analyzes the effects on spending of three policy options.

Trends in Low-Value Health Service Use and Spending in the US Medicare Fee-for-Service Program, 2014-2018

2021-02-18T08:45:00Z

Among individuals with fee-for-service Medicare receiving any of 32 measured services, low-value care use and spending decreased marginally from 2014 to 2018.

Setting U.S. Hospital Prices Could Cut Overall Health Spending by Billions

2021-02-18T03:01:00Z

Price regulations face political obstacles and have been strongly opposed by medical providers. But setting prices for all commercial health care payers could reduce hospital spending by $61.9 billion to $236.6 billion a year if the rates were set at 100 to 150 percent of the amounts paid by Medicare.

Low-Value Care Among Medicare Recipients Drops Only Marginally Despite Effort to Curb Practices

2021-02-16T11:00:00Z

Examples of low-value health care include prescribing opioids for acute back pain and antibiotics for upper respiratory infections. Despite efforts to better educate clinicians and discourage wasteful care, spending on such services among Medicare recipients dropped only marginally from 2014 to 2018.

Increasing Price Transparency in Health Care

2021-02-16T08:15:00Z

RAND researchers examine current price transparency efforts and their features, describe barriers to more widespread availability and use of price information, and discuss possible ways to overcome those barriers.

Impact of Consumer-Directed Health Plans on Low-Value Healthcare

2021-02-12T09:30:00Z

Switching to a consumer-directed health plan is associated with reduced overall outpatient spending, but not with reduced spending on low-value healthcare services.