FAQ: How Would Cost-Benefit Analysis Be Used to Restrain Healthcare Costs? – The Case of an Expensive New Cholesterol Drug

Executive Summary Some experts say that cost-benefit analysis is the way to restrain soaring healthcare costs and reform the system. How exactly would cost-benefit analysis work? This blog argues: Forget the caviar. But keep costworthy care on the menu. To explain what this means, let’s look at the case of Repatha (evolocumab), the new cholesterol-lowering drug, … Continue reading FAQ: How Would Cost-Benefit Analysis Be Used to Restrain Healthcare Costs? – The Case of an Expensive New Cholesterol Drug →

FAQ: Could a Healthcare Reform Plan Designed for a Single State Work at a National Level?

Could an approach used 23 years ago by a single state, targeted only at its Medicaid program, be applied on a national scale for reforming the vast U.S. healthcare system? The answer is Yes. Oregon in 1994 decided to cut services instead of cutting patients in response to a Medicaid budget squeeze. The governor used … Continue reading FAQ: Could a Healthcare Reform Plan Designed for a Single State Work at a National Level? →

Navigating Payment Reform – NEJM Catalyst

Harvard Business School and New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst group convened a webinar on “Navigating Payment Reform for Providers, Payers & Pharma” on November 2. Presenters admirably fulfilled Dr. Dafny’s challenge as convener to be transparent about goals, attuned to new ideas, open to trade-offs, and unafraid of failure. From the perspective of General Systems … Continue reading Navigating Payment Reform – NEJM Catalyst →

Will These Ideas Fix U.S. Healthcare?

Almost everyone agrees that the U.S. healthcare system needs to be fixed. For example, each of the 2016 Presidential candidates promised to fix it. Now that the election is over, heated debate continues over 2 basic questions: What, exactly, is the problem? How, then, should it be fixed? My answer to the first question is: … Continue reading Will These Ideas Fix U.S. Healthcare? →

Segment 10 – What Can I Do to Fix Healthcare?

This segment reviews steps that viewers can take locally as well as civic actions that can support healthcare restraint and reform at a national level. In the last Segment we looked at what I call the Big Fix. It is based on the idea of setting limits fairly. I highlighted the Oregon Health Plan that … Continue reading Segment 10 – What Can I Do to Fix Healthcare? →