RAND Health Newsletter
The RAND Health Newsletter is a monthly update that features recent research from RAND Health.
Contents of November 2007 RAND Health newsletter:
- Prescription drug spending associated with reduction in Medicare spending
- Marijuana sanctions: lower legal risk for dealers may result in higher prices
- Characteristics of disabled California Medicare beneficiaries
- RAND Health Insurance Experiment (HIE)
- Quality Indicators for Care of Vulnerable Elderly Updated
- Predicting health care expenditures using age or life expectancy
- Preventing partner violence in Latino youth
- Expert panel reviews field resuscitation circumstances for paramedics
- November RAND Health Congressional Newsletter
- Recent research highlights and fact sheets from RAND Health
-
Prescription drug spending associated with reduction in Medicare spending
Medigap prescription drug coverage reduces Medicare Part B spending. The substitution effect decreases as income rises, and thus provides support for the low-income assistance program of Medicare Part D. -
Marijuana sanctions: lower legal risk for dealers may result in higher prices
Lower legal risks for marijuana users users are associated with higher marijuana prices and thus higher profits for drug dealers. -
Characteristics of disabled California Medicare beneficiaries
This study reviews the characteristics and inpatient utilization of California Medicare beneficiaries who are with or without additional Medicaid State buy-in coverage. -
RAND Health Insurance Experiment (HIE)
The RAND Health Insurance Experiment (HIE) showed that modest cost sharing reduces use of services with negligible effects on health for the average person. Recent blog discussions have challenged the statistical basis for this finding. Dr. Joseph Newhouse, who directed the HIE, clarifies the issue.
Read more from the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School -
Quality Indicators for Care of Vulnerable Elderly Updated
The Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) quality indicators are a comprehensive set of measures for assessing care given to the vulnerable elderly, persons 65 and over who are at heightened risk for death or functional decline over a 2-year period. First developed in 1999, the indicators have just been updated to cover 26 clinical conditions.View Table of Contents at Journal of American Geriatrics Society -
Predicting health care expenditures using age or life expectancy
Which best predicts health care expenditures, age or life expectancy? Using life expectancy instead of age results in lower projections of future health care expenditures, which means living longer may cost less than age-based projections would suggest. Preventing partner violence in Latino youth
Break the Cycle, a non-profit organization seeking to end domestic violence, implemented a five-year demonstration project for Latino youth in Los Angeles, California. RAND's evaluation of the project explores lessons learned that can inform other prevention efforts.-
Expert panel reviews field resuscitation circumstances for paramedics
New quality indicators that expand the previously limited circumstances in which paramedics might forgo field resuscitation could reduce harm from such procedures among seriously ill patients. November RAND Health Congressional Newsletter
The November RAND Health Congressional newsletter focuses on diabetes. November is National Diabetes Awareness Month.Recent research highlights and fact sheets from RAND Health
Estimating the Global Health Impact of Improved Diagnostic Tools for the Developing World — RB-9293
Citation: Shang B, Goldman D. Prescription Drug Coverage and Elderly Medicare Spending, National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 13358, Sept 2007.
Citation: Pacula RL, Kilmer B, Grossman M, Chaloupka FJ. Risks and Prices: The Role of User Sanctions in Marijuana Markets, National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 13415, Sept 2007.
Citation: O'Leary JE, Sloss EM, Melnick G. Disabled Medicare Beneficiaries by Dual Eligible Status: California, 1996-2001, Health Care Financing Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, Summer 2007, pp. 57-67.
Citation: Eastman KL, Corona R, Schuster MA. Talking Parents, Healthy Teens: A Worksite-based Program for Parents to Promote Adolescent Sexual Health, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Vol. 55, No. s2, Oct. 2007, pp. S247-S487.
Citation: Shang B, Goldman D. Does Age or Life Expectancy Better Predict Health Care Expenditures? Health Economics, Epub, Oct 12, 2007.
Citation: Jaycox LH, Aronoff J, Shelley GA. Preventing Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence in Racial/Ethnic Minority Communities: CDC's Demonstration Projects. The Break the Cycle Evaluation Project, in Whitaker DJ, Reese LE (eds), Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2007, pp. 101-115.
Citation: Grudzen CR, Liddicoat R, Hoffman JR, Koenig W, Lorenz KA, Asch SM. Developing Quality Indicators for the Appropriateness of Resuscitation in Prehospital Atraumatic Cardiac Arrest, Prehospital Emergency Care, Vol. 11, No. 4, Oct-Dec 2007, pp. 434-442.
Housekeeping
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Mary Vaiana, Communications Director of RAND Health, can be reached at Mary_Vaiana@rand.org.
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