The Health Plan Environment In California Contributed To Differential Use Of Telehealth During The COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to substantial increases in the use of telehealth and virtual care in the US. Differential patient and provider access to technology and resources has raised concerns that existing health disparities may be extenuated by shifts to virtual care. We used data from one of the largest providers of employer-sponsored insurance, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, to examine potential disparities in the use of telehealth.

Pooled testing efficiency increases with test frequency.

Pooled testing increases efficiency by grouping individual samples and testing the combined sample, such that many individuals can be cleared with one negative test. This short paper demonstrates that pooled testing is particularly advantageous in the setting of pandemics, given repeated testing, rapid spread, and uncertain risk. Repeated testing mechanically lowers the infection probability at the time of the next test by removing positives from the population.

Orthodontic Bond Strength Comparison between Two Filled Resin Sealants.

Objective: Sealants are used in orthodontics to help prevent demineralization during treatment. This study aimed to determine if there is a difference in the shear bond strength (SBS) between 2 different resin sealants bonded to teeth.

Methods: Extracted human premolars (n=20/group) were randomly divided and prepared by acid etching, followed by application of primer or sealant.

Do physician incentives increase patient medication adherence?

Objective: To test the effectiveness of physician incentives for increasing patient medication adherence in three drug classes: diabetes medication, antihypertensives, and statins.

Data Sources: Pharmacy and medical claims from a large Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan from January 2011 to December 2012.

Study Design: We conducted a randomized experiment (911 primary care practices and 8,935 nonadherent patients) to test the effect of paying physicians for increasing patient medication adherence in three drug classes: diabetes medication, antihypertensives, and statins.

Mandate-based health reform and the labor market: Evidence from the Massachusetts reform.

We model the labor market impact of the key provisions of the national and Massachusetts "mandate-based" health reforms: individual mandates, employer mandates, and subsidies. We characterize the compensating differential for employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI) and the welfare impact of reform in terms of "sufficient statistics." We compare welfare under mandate-based reform to welfare in a counterfactual world where individuals do not value ESHI.

ACA-mandated elimination of cost sharing for preventive screening has had limited early impact.

Objectives: The Affordable Care Act eliminated patient cost sharing for evidence-based preventive care, yet the impact of this policy on colonoscopy and mammography rates is unclear. We examined the elimination of cost sharing among small business beneficiaries of Humana, a large national insurer.

Study Design: This was a retrospective interrupted time series analysis of whether the change in cost-sharing policy was associated with a change in screening utilization, using grandfathered plans as a comparison group.

Health Insurance for "Humans": Information Frictions, Plan Choice, and Consumer Welfare.

Traditional models of insurance choice are predicated on fully informed and rational consumers protecting themselves from exposure to financial risk. In practice, choosing an insurance plan is a complicated decision often made without full information. In this paper we combine new administrative data on health plan choices and claims with unique survey data on consumer information to identify risk preferences, information frictions, and hassle costs.

Adverse Selection and an Individual Mandate: When Theory Meets Practice.

We develop a model of selection that incorporates a key element of recent health reforms: an individual mandate. Using data from Massachusetts, we estimate the parameters of the model. In the individual market for health insurance, we find that premiums and average costs decreased significantly in response to the individual mandate.

Consumers' misunderstanding of health insurance.

We report results from two surveys of representative samples of Americans with private health insurance. The first examines how well Americans understand, and believe they understand, traditional health insurance coverage. The second examines whether those insured under a simplified all-copay insurance plan will be more likely to engage in cost-reducing behaviors relative to those insured under a traditional plan with deductibles and coinsurance, and measures consumer preferences between the two plans.

The Impact of Health Care Reform on Hospital and Preventive Care: Evidence from Massachusetts(☆).

In April 2006, Massachusetts passed legislation aimed at achieving near-universal health insurance coverage. The key features of this legislation were a model for national health reform, passed in March 2010. The reform gives us a novel opportunity to examine the impact of expansion to near-universal coverage state-wide.

When you can't have the cake and eat it too: a study of medical doctors' priorities in complex choice situations.

Available literature provides little insight into medical doctors' prescription choices when they are required to make complex trade-offs between different concerns such as treatment effect, costs, and patient preferences simultaneously. This study investigates this issue. It is based on a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) conducted with 571 Norwegian doctors, where the DCE captures preferences for medications described along five dimensions important for both clinical decision-making and prioritisation in the health sector.

Pro-social preferences and self-selection into the public health sector: evidence from an economic experiment.

Motivational crowding-out theory establishes that the effectiveness of financial incentive schemes, like pay-for-performance, crucially depends on the underlying social preferences of health workers. In this paper we study the extent to which heterogeneity in the strength and structure of social preferences is related to career choices by testing whether preferences vary systematically between Tanzanian health worker students who prefer to work in the private for-profit health sector and those who prefer to work in the public health sector. Despite its important policy implications, this issue has received little attention to date.

Clinical evidence, practice guidelines, and β-blocker utilization before major noncardiac surgery.

Background: Largely on the basis of 2 randomized trials published in the 1990s, β-blockers were initially promoted as an evidence-based intervention for preventing cardiac complications of noncardiac surgery. However, subsequent studies raised concerns about a widespread use of perioperative β-blockade. Little is known regarding how this changing evidence influenced the use of perioperative β-blockers in clinical practice.

Designing health insurance exchanges: key decisions.

A cornerstone of health care reform is the establishment of state-level insurance exchanges where individuals and small businesses can purchase health insurance in an online marketplace. States are required to develop an exchange by 2014, or participate in a federal one. The exchanges will help people without employer-sponsored insurance find and choose a health plan to meet their needs.

The effect of pay-for-performance in hospitals: lessons for quality improvement.

The payment approach known as "pay-for-performance" has been widely adopted with the aim of improving the quality of health care. Nonetheless, little is known about how to use the approach most effectively to improve care. We examined the effects in 260 hospitals of a pay-for-performance demonstration project carried out by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in partnership with Premier Inc.

How to make rural jobs more attractive to health workers. Findings from a discrete choice experiment in Tanzania.

The geographical imbalance of the health workforce in Tanzania represents a serious problem when it comes to delivering crucial health services to a large share of the population. This study provides new quantitative information about how to make jobs in rural areas more attractive to newly educated clinical officers (COs). A unique data set stemming from a discrete choice experiment with CO finalists in Tanzania is applied.

Quality and consumer decision making in the market for health insurance and health care services.

This article reviews the literature relating quality to consumer choice of health plan or health care provider. Evidence suggests that consumers tend to choose better performing health plans and providers and are responsive to initiatives that provide quality information. The response to quality and quality information differs significantly among consumers and across population subgroups.