We examine the impact of the 2006 Massachusetts healthcare reform on substance use disorder (SUD) treatment facilities' provision of care. We test the impact of the reform on treatment quantity and access. We couple data on the near universe of specialty SUD treatment providers in the USA with a synthetic control method approach. We find little evidence that the reform lead to changes in treatm...

BACKGROUND Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) has been promoted as an important research methodology for determining the efficiency of healthcare technology and guiding medical decision-making. Our aim was to characterize the collaborative patterns of CEA conducted over the past two decades in Spain. METHODS AND FINDINGS A systematic analysis was carried out with the information obtained throu...

Entrepreneurs who start new firms may choose not-for-profit status as a means of committing to soft incentives. Such incentives protect donors, volunteers, consumers and employees from ex post expropriation of profits by the entrepreneur. We derive conditions under which completely self-interested entrepreneurs opt for not-for-profit status, despite the fact that this status limits their abilit...

The current economic crisis in Europe has challenged the basis of the economic model that currently prevails in much of the industrialised world. It has revealed a system that is managed not for the benefit of the people but rather for the corporations and the small elite who lead them, and which is clearly unsustainable in its present form. Yet, there is a hidden consequence of this system: an...

the editorial “non-physician clinicians in sub-saharan africa and the evolving role of physicians” by eyal et al describes non-physician clinicians’ (npc) need for mentorship and support from physicians. we emphasise the same need of support for front line generalist primary healthcare providers who carry out complex tasks yet may have an inadequate skill mix.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) offer patients the opportunity to access their own medical records. Google and Microsoft recently extended their public services by introducing internet-based personal healthcare information platforms – Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. Over one hundred thousand people have registered at the two services since they were launched. Both companies invite othe...

A longstanding literature has highlighted the tension between the altruism of physicians and their desire for profit. This paper develops new implications for how these competing forces drive pricing and utilization in healthcare markets. Altruism dictates that providers reduce utilization in response to higher prices, but profit-maximization does the opposite. Rational physicians will behave m...

BACKGROUND While the main focus of accreditation initiatives has been on hospitals, the implementation of these programs is a relatively new notion among other types of healthcare facilities. Correspondingly, this study aims to understand how accreditation is perceived among primary public healthcare centers using an isomorphic institutional theory. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY Semi-structured, in-dept...