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Oregon's Medicaid Lottery Works, Says MIT Economist
By using a lottery to assign coverage, Oregon had unintentionally created the perfect conditions for a randomized controlled trial that could reveal the true costs and benefits of health insurance.
When Oregon voted in 2008 to use a lottery to determine which low-income adults to add to its Medicaid rolls, Stephen Colbert mocked the effort as "gambling for health insurance."
MIT economist Amy Finkelstein wasn't laughing. "I heard about it and immediately thought, 'Oh my god, drop everything and get on this!'" says Finkelstein, the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT and a principal investigator of the groundbreaking Oregon Health Insurance Experiment. "What they saw as humorous, we saw as an unprecedented opportunity to bring the gold standard in scientific research to one of the most pressing questions of our day."
By using a lottery to assign coverage, Oregon had unintentionally created the perfect conditions for a randomized controlled trial that could reveal the true costs and benefits of health insurance. Since the population that received coverage was statistically equivalent to the group that didn't, economists could simply compare outcomes between groups to gauge the effects of insurance. "Remarkably, this had never been done before in the United States," says Finkelstein, who won the 2012 John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association for most significant contribution to economic thought by an economist under 40.
Read the complete article on MedicalXpress: http://bit.ly/1Fe12iv
Joanne Mizell: Lifestyle Modification Programs Take Holistic Aim at Metabolic Disease
May 1st 2024Joanne Mizell shares insurer strategies in addressing the escalating rates of metabolic diseases, highlighting the importance of holistic treatment methods like lifestyle modification programs, which integrate nutrition, physical activity, and community engagement.
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Tackling Health Inequality: The Power of Education and Experience
April 30th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our final episode of this limited series and our conversation with Janine Jelks-Seale, MSPPM, director of health equity at UPMC Health Plan.
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Examining Low-Value Cancer Care Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 25th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the April 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on the rates of low-value cancer care services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued letters to 10 companies to warn them that certain drug patents were improperly listed; the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin testing ground beef for bird flu particles; rural Americans are more likely to die early from 1 of the 5 leading causes of death than those who live in urban areas.
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