Podcast Nov 12, 2024

Deadly Prescriptions: What Happens When Doctors Compete for Patients

Tess Vigeland and Molly Schnell
When some US states allowed nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled substances without physician oversight, a serious unintended consequence took hold:...
Topics: Health care
Podcast Oct 15, 2024

How Do Buyouts Impact Hospital Performance? Evaluating the Role of Private Equity in Healthcare

Tess Vigeland and Maggie Shi
Private equity investors made some $200 billion worth of healthcare acquisitions in 2021, and $1 trillion worth in the 10...
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·Sep 25, 2024

Investing in Vaccines to Mitigate Harm from COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

Rachel Glennerster, Catherine Che, Sarrin Chethik, Claire McMahon, and Christopher M. Snyder
During pandemics, rapid vaccination can significantly reduce mortality, economic losses, and societal disruptions. Vaccine manufacturers often lack incentives to expand...
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·Sep 4, 2024

Managing Margins: PE Effects on Financial, Physical, and Human Capital

Michael R. Richards, Maggie Shi, and Christopher M. Whaley
Private equity’s influence on hospital performance includes permanent improvements in hospital patient volumes and revenues, reductions in full-time employees, restrained...
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·Jul 25, 2024

Who Pays for Rising Health Care Prices? Evidence from Hospital Mergers

Zarek Brot-Goldberg, Zack Cooper, Stuart V. Craig, Lev R. Klarnet, Ithai Lurie, and Corbin L. Miller
Rising health care prices are passed onto employers as higher insurance premiums, which decreases their demand for labor and reduces...
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·May 13, 2024

Is There Too Little Antitrust Enforcement in the US Hospital Sector?

Zarek Brot-Goldberg, Zack Cooper, Stuart V. Craig, Stuart V. Craig, and Lev Klarnet
Twenty percent of US hospital mergers that occurred between 2002 and 2020 could have been predicted to lessen competition using...
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·Oct 3, 2023

Private Actions in the Presence of Externalities: The Health Impacts of Reducing Air Pollution Peaks but not Ambient Exposure

Joshua Dean and Susanna B. Berkouwer
Improved cookstoves reduce exposure to peak cooking emissions by 42%, though impacts on overall pollution exposure are muted by high...
Topics: Development Economics, Energy & Environment, Health care
Research Briefs·Aug 29, 2023

Monitoring for Waste: Evidence from Medicare Audits

Maggie Shi
Every dollar Medicare spent on monitoring generates $24–29 in government savings, mainly from the deterrence of medically unnecessary future care....
Topics: Health care
Research Briefs·Jul 14, 2023

Who Values Human Capitalists’ Human Capital? The Earnings and Labor Supply of U.S. Physicians

Joshua D. Gottlieb, Maria Polyakova, Hugh Shiplett, Kevin Rinz, and Victoria Udalova
Physicians’ annual earnings average $350,000 and comprise 8.6% of national healthcare spending. Government policy has a major impact on earnings:...
Topics: Health care