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The Incidental Economist

May 16, 2012

Misdiagnosing is easier than you think

Sarah Kliff notes a poll this morning: A Wolters Kluwer poll out this morning finds that not only are most consumers turning to the Internet to answer medical questions, but that they also put strong faith in their own diagnosis. Among college educated Americans, 63 percent say they have “never” misdiagnosed themselves. Add in those who have [...]

May 16, 2012

Health Affairs authors respond to criticism. Maybe mine.

About a month ago, I wrote a post congratulating Sharon Begley for her well reasoned reporting on a paper in Health Affairs that argues that the extra money we spend on cancer care is worth it because it buys us increased survival time. I also wrote a follow up post here. On Monday, the authors [...]

May 15, 2012

Sometimes science is all about “coulda” and not about “shoulda”

I have a friend who loves to send me links to studies he knows I’m going to start screaming about. This would be a good example of such a study (but that came from a different friend). Yesterday, he sent me “Ovulation and Perceived Paternal Investment“: Why do some women pursue relationships with men who [...]

May 15, 2012

Unsustainable health economics

If you’re the score-keeping type and a fan of health economics, you might like the recent paper by Adam Wagstaff and Anthony Culyer, titled “Four decades of health economics through a bibliometric lens.” (An ungated working paper pdf is here.) It includes lists of the top health economics papers (300 of them), health economists (100), [...]

May 14, 2012

What insurers and hospitals do with market power

I’m pleased to announce that Aaron and I will be posting several times a month on the AcademyHealth blog. My first post appears today. It’s a lot about what insurers and a little about what hospitals do and don’t do with market power. It summarizes some recent publications and includes a must-see chart. Go read [...]

May 14, 2012

Overidentification tests

Last week, in Inquiry, my latest paper with Steve Pizer and Roger Feldman was published. An ungated, working paper version is also available. Note also that I wrote a bit about a portion of it in a prior post, though even that does not describe what the paper is about.  I’ll write more about the results [...]

May 14, 2012

Coming back from end of week cynicism

I gave two talks at the end of last week. The first was on Accountable Care Organizations for a local chapter of the AAP. The second was on health care reform and the health care system in general. By the end of the second talk on Friday, I was pretty much feeling despondent. As I [...]

May 14, 2012

HIV prevention practices in substance abuse treatment

I’m grand rounding Tuesday noon at the Washington DC  VA. I’ll be discussing methadone dosage and HIV prevention practices in outpatient substance abuse treatment. This talk draws on two decades of data from the National Drug Abuse System Survey (NDATSS), a nationally-representative panel study of outpatient treatment facilities across the U.S. It’s not a general [...]

May 14, 2012

Consequences of insurer market power [FAQ]

This is a FAQ entry. See the main FAQ index for others. How insurance functions like bulk purchasing, achieving discounts on volume If insurers suffer cost shifting, they lack sufficient market power [see also the other cost shifting FAQs] Insurer market power tells us nothing about premiums The co-evolution of insurer and hospital market power explains a lot  [...]

May 13, 2012

Why nurses return to work when unemployment grows

Earlier today, Sarah Kliff reported that “nurse practitioners are rolling out a campaign this week to explain what, exactly, nurse practitioners do — and why patients should trust them with their medical needs.” Anticipating a shortage of physicians, nurses are asserting that they can help fill the void. Though not the same as nurse practitioners, [...]