Options for states to constrain pricing power of health care providers.

Health care is becoming increasingly unaffordable for both individuals and employers and prices vary in nearly incomprehensible ways that do not correlate with quality. In many areas, consolidation of insurers and providers resulted in market failure that needs policy interventions. With federal gridlock, state policymakers are seeking options for controlling health care costs in markets where competition has failed.

How Price Regulation Is Needed To Advance Market Competition.

In US health policy, conventional wisdom holds that market competition and price regulation are mutually exclusive strategies to stem high and rising provider prices. This incorrect assumption centers on the belief that robust competition in US commercial health insurance markets must include provider price competition. Other developed countries, however, commonly implement price regulation to support competition over important care delivery components other than prices, including quality of care and patient choice, and to provide stronger incentives for providers to improve operating efficiency.

The Impact of Respiratory Therapy International Education in the United States: Saudi International Students' Perceptions.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess graduate and undergraduate international respiratory therapy students' perceptions of the impact of their international educational experience on their life experience and development.

Methods: Data were collected through a validated descriptive survey. Four main dimensions of development were assessed: professional respiratory therapist (RT) role, global understanding, personal development, and intellectual development.

Removing a constraint on hospital utilization: a natural experiment in Maryland.

Objectives: To limit growth in hospital utilization in the 1990s, Maryland required payers to reimburse excess hospital volume at lower case rates. In 2001, this policy changed and excess volume was paid at full case rates. We investigated the impact of this policy change on hospital utilization and finances.