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Key Publications in Health Services & Economics

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

A few key publications are listed below:

Cost-effectiveness analysis of health interventions focuses mostly on costs and benefits at the level of the individual; but health interventions for individuals often affect other family members and even the family’s overall functioning. The authors write that analyses should routinely incorporate measures of effectiveness and costs from multiple family members.

—Bonomi AE, Boudreau DM, Fishman PA, Meenan RT, Revicki RA. (2005.) Is a family equal to the sum of its parts? Estimating family-level well-being for cost-effectiveness analysis. Quality of Life Research, 14: 1127–1133.

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Consumers are ultimately interested in final goods, such as improved health or health-related quality of life. However, health services research is focused on whether health services financing and delivery maximize production of intermediate goods. The authors examine recent changes in the U.S. health care sector that suggest the need to revise how health services research analyses cost, production, and output.

—Fishman PA, Hornbrook MC, Meenan RT, Goodman MF (2004). Opportunities and challenges for measuring cost, quality, and clinical effectiveness in health care. Medical Care Research and Review, 61 (3 Suppl.): 124S-143S.

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Risk assessments that are based on diagnosis plus an analysis of a patient’s conditions, using the Hierarchical Coexisting Conditions (HCC) model, produce accurate forecasts of total cost. However, this study developed a pharmacy-based alternative risk assessment called RxRisk, which may be a more appropriate option for medical risk analysis models. RxRisk is an algorithm that classifies prescription drug fulfillment into chronic disease classes for adults and children.

—Fishman PA, Goodman MJ, Hornbrook MC, Meenan RT, Bachman DJ, O'Keeffe Rosetti MC (2003). Risk adjustment using automated ambulatory pharmacy data: The RxRisk model. Medical Care, 41 (1): 84–99.

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Compared to people who keep smoking, former smokers have significantly higher health care costs during the first year after they quit. But their costs fall to a level that is statistically indistinguishable in the second year after quitting. Within two years after quitting, any net increase in costs among former smokers relative to continuing smokers disappears.

—Fishman PA, Khan ZM, Thompson E, Curry S (2003). Health care costs among smokers, former smokers, and never smokers in an HMO. Health Services Research, 38 (2): 733–749.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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