Research

Current Projects

Impact of benefit generosity on health plan selection

This project examined the impact of benefit changes on choice of health plans and whether this impact varies by health status. Analysts examined comprehensive claims data from a major U.S. employer that introduced changes in its health plan and drug coverage offerings for non-Medicare eligible retirees between 2001 and 2002. The study team observed the same individuals across the two years, and examine the switching behavior of beneficiaries in response to the new benefits. They results showed that beneficiaries with better health status are more likely to switch to less generous plans. We separated the impact that medical generosity and the drug generosity had on plan selection. We found that although the medical generosity plays a more important role, its impact on selection does not vary significantly with health status. On the other hand, the impact of drug generosity on plan selection varies significantly with the number of prior chronic conditions. In particular, sicker individuals are more sensitive to drug benefit design.

Impact of liability on pharmaceutical innovation

This study will estimate the impact of pharmaceutical liability on the prices of prescription drugs and other medications. This is an important topic with potentially vast implications for health care costs, but little is known about the relationship between pharmaceutical prices and producer liability costs. This project will produce new evidence on the extent to which liability is a significant driver of drug prices.

Designing a sustainable health care financing system in China

The goal of this collaboration between the Chinese government and RAND is to design, conduct, and evaluate health insurance experiments to identify the best model for Chinese healthcare reform. Still in the formative stages, the collaboration as envisioned by RAND would include multi-year, multi-phase large-scale experimental studies to test different models of healthcare financing and delivery to meet the healthcare needs of Chinese people.

Do hospital patients value inefficiency?

Researchers commonly assess the extent to which hospitals could operate at lower cost, that is, more "efficiently." One study of American hospitals concluded that inefficiency accounts for almost fourteen percent of total industry costs. However, hospital outputs may also include health services or amenities (such as private rooms, good food, or attentive nurses due to low staff/patient ratios) that would be labeled "inefficient" by conventional measures but that nonetheless are valued by patients. This study is assessing whether a patient’s choice of hospital reveals additional information about a hospital's output and, if so, how this information can improve assessment of hospital performance.