Reading List:

Health Care

Does any area of the economy offer as much opportunity for improvement – both in terms of cost efficiency and efficacy?


Feature / COVID-19

Medicare Ratings Didn’t Predict Nursing Homes’ Initial COVID-19 Vulnerability

Rate of spread in the surrounding community was a bigger indicator of risk

Nursing home at night - looking through multiple windows
Feature / Health Care

Private Equity Boosts Nursing Home Staffing — When Compelled by Competition

But in uncompetitive markets, the financial owners cut staff

Illustration of doctors and nurses with outlines of missing people
Research Brief / COVID-19

Employees Work at Multiple Nursing Homes and Spread COVID-19

Smartphone GPS tracks staffers between facilities

Nurses washing their hands outdoors while wearing face masks
Research Brief / Health Care

How Nursing Homes Selectively Admit Patients for Optimal Profits

When beds are limited, turning away the sickest and poorest boosts margins

Male nurse pushing a patient in a wheelchair
Feature / Health Care

BRCA Mutation: New Model Quantifies How Surgeries Reduce Cancer Risk

Informed by personal experience, a researcher parses data to help those mulling mastectomy and gynecological surgeries

Computer model of chromosomes unwinding
Feature / Productivity

Picked All the Low-Hanging Fruit? Finding Opportunity in Mathematical Models

After management does its best, new analytical approaches take effectiveness up another notch

Illustration of a man reaching for cherries on top of a pile of math symbols
Research Brief / Health Care

Research: Patients Spent 15 Hours Longer than Necessary in the ICU

Delaying transfers to other inpatient hospital rooms limits availability of costly beds

Person in an ICU
Research Brief / Health Care

Kidney Transplant Outcomes Suffer at Clinics That Add Liver Transplants

Younger-patient mortality rate nearly triples, 20 years of data indicate

Two doctors performing surgery
Research Brief / Health Care

Machine Learning Can Help Reduce Post-Surgical Hospital Readmissions

A model outperformed simpler statistical approaches in predicting which patients would encounter trouble

Hospital emergency room
Research Brief / Health Care

Carefully Crafted Messaging Boosts Uptake in Cancer Screening

Embedding psychological nudges in mail reminding people to get tested improves compliance

Two letters from UCLA Health
Research Brief / Health Care

Behavioral Economics Could Increase Obamacare Enrollment and Stabilize Markets

Greater subsidies aren’t enough: Lowering the complexity of enrollment is needed to bring more and healthier people into the market

Illustration of a man in front of a computer covering his face while stressed
Feature / Health Care

Hospital Hand-Washing: The Limits of Electronic Monitoring

The anti-infection procedure rises for a time, when workers are watched, and then falls off

Hand sanitizer dispenser
Research Brief / Health Care

When Ebola Strikes, Where Should Help Go?

Improving epidemic forecasting helps response teams target aid more effectively

Ebola tent
Feature / Mergers and Acquisitions

Some Corporate Mergers Hold Down Future Wages

Fewer employers = less competition for workers = smaller paychecks

Illustration of two men juggling cash
Research Brief / Mergers and Acquisitions

How Antitrust Thinking on Hospital Mergers Has Been Forced to Evolve

Matt Schmitt’s research shows hospital prices rise after acquisitions, even where local competition is unchanged

Hospital building
Research Brief / Mergers and Acquisitions

Do Hospital Mergers Really Cut Health Care Costs?

Matt Schmitt finds that size and location help determine how much, if any, costs fall after deals

Illustration of two people pushing two puzzle pieces together with a dollar sign in the middle
Feature / Health Care

A Tool to Make FDA Drug Approval Practices Transparent

Researchers aim to help the agency, drug companies and patients better understand the complex authorization process

FDA building
Research Brief / Health Care

Medicare Could Save by Subsidizing Providers’ Capital Spending

Projects that make health care delivery more efficient require upfront financial help

Illustration of dollar bills folded into a Staff of Hermes
Feature / Health Care

Do Surgeons Win or Lose When Medicare Bundles Payments?

A model separates potential profits or losses for hospital, doctors and other health care providers when insurer pays in lump sum

Doctors practicing for surgery
Research Brief / Health Care

Two-Tier Pricing: Reducing Risk for ACOs and Specialist Practices

Higher prices for the first few procedures, followed by a volume discount, may help balance risks and rewards

Clean operating room
Research Brief / Health Care

Can Contracts Optimize Both Health Care and Clinician Pay?

Accountable care organizations can levy penalties against specialists for poor patient outcomes

Bird's eye view of a building complex
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