Institute of Medicine. Initial national priori1. ties for comparative effectiveness research. Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine, 2009. Iglehart JK. Health insurers and medical2. imaging policy — a work in progress. N Engl J Med 2009;360:1030-7. Avorn J. Debate about funding compara3. tive-effectiveness research. N Engl J Med 2009;360:1927-9. Garber AM, Tunis SR. Does comparative4. effective...

This paper studies the efficiency effects of physician fees when the insurer (possibly the government) pays a fee for each procedure, and the doctor may supplement the fee by an extra charge to the patient, a practice known as 'balance billing.' Monopolistically competitive physicians can discriminate among patients on the basis of both price and quality. Equilibria with and without balance bil...

Based on the global product revenue there is a drug delivery product with 15% of annual growth rate, annual income of approximately US$43 billion and biodegradable, biocompatible like properties is none other than resealed erythrocytes. It has the capability of reaching the target with minimal side effects which make its demand in the research field to do more and more. Under the shadow of thes...

Fast forward to today. PHRs are definitely making inroads, but not necessarily in the way Microsoft (or competitor Google Inc., which in 2008 launched its own consumer-oriented PHR service) had hoped. A Forrester Research survey of more than 5,200 consumers conducted in late 2009 found that almost a third of respondents had some form of PHR-but the vast majority are getting them from their heal...

In Medicaid, as in all third-party insurance, there are significant costs for information exchange between providers of services and the State (or other insurer), which reimburses those providers. On the basis of a study of Medicaid in Wisconsin, this article indicates that appreciable costs are incurred owing to deficiencies in information exchange between these parties. It is proposed that th...

This study provides evidence that franchise value improves insurers’ operating performance. Essentially coming from an insurer’s market power, franchise value includes the insurer’s brand royalty, business networking, and underwriting and claim specialty. High franchise value firms who could charge more, have lower operating costs, and have a larger client base are potentially more profitable. ...