Measuring the Prices of Medical Treatments

by Triplett, Jack E.

• ISBN13: 9780815783442
• ISBN10: 0815783442
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

How serious is medical care inflation in the United States? For many years, price indexes for medical care have outstripped the overall rate of inflation. For example, between 1986 and 1996, the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 6.5 percent per year, roughly exceeding the annual increase in the overall CPI during this period by 75 percent.Many economists, however, believe that economic statistics on medical care do not accurately measure medical care price changes because it is especially difficult to construct accurate price indexes for medical markets. Some very recent research, reported in this volume, suggests that-contrary to the usual presumption of runaway medical inflation-prices for at least some medical care interventions are not rising rapidly and may even be falling.Understanding medical care inflation is important for policy issues such as medical care cost containment. Medical care price indexes also affect other economic statistics on medical care, including national accounts and the national health accounts. Understanding economic trends in the medical care sector is vitally dependent on accurate medical care price measures.This volume, the result of a conference cosponsored by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, brings together state-of-the-art methodological and empirical work on the measurement of medical outcomes and prices. It will be a useful tool for anyone concerned about medical inflation, medical outcomes, the quality of medical treatments, and public policy toward medical cost containment.

Table of Contents

Introduction: New Developments in Measuring Medical Care	1	(33)
Jack E. Triplett
Ernst R. Berndt
The Costs and Benefits of Intensive Treatment for Cardiovascular Disease	34	(38)
David M. Cutler
Mark B. McClellan
Joseph P. Newhouse
Price Indexes for the Treatment of Depression	72	(46)
Richard G. Frank
Ernst R. Berndt
Susan H. Busch
The Economics of Antibiotics: An Exploratory Study	118	(34)
Sara Fisher Ellison
Judith K. Hellerstein
Drug Patents and Prices: Can We Achieve Better Outcomes?	152	(44)
Joel W. Hay
Winnie M. Yu
Medical Care Costs, Benefits, and Effects: Conceptual Issues for Measuring Price Changes	196	(24)
Mark V. Pauly
Accounting for Health Care: Integrating Price Index and Cost-Effectiveness Research	220	(31)
Jack E. Triplett
Health Care Prices, Outcomes, and Policy	251	(18)
Outcomes from the Viewpoint of a Federal Agency	251	(4)
John M. Eisenberg
The Future of Health Care Policy	255	(3)
Willard G. Manning Jr.
The Shape of Health Care Research	258	(4)
David Meltzer
Measuring Health Care Prices: What Research Is Needed?	262	(7)
Burton A. Weisbrod
Index	269