Perspective: Effects of new drugs on overall health spending: Frank Lichtenberg responds

Health Affairs

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 887-890

  Lichtenberg, Frank R ^a,b  

^a Och Spine at New York Presbyterian Hospitals   (United States)

^b NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS; DRUG THERAPY; ECONOMICS; HEALTH CARE COST; HUMAN; METHODOLOGY; NOTE; THEORETICAL MODEL; TIME; UNITED STATES;

COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS; DRUG THERAPY; HEALTH CARE COSTS; HUMANS; MODELS, THEORETICAL; TIME FACTORS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 34248513277     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: 02782715     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.3.887     Document Type: Review

References (15)

1. Y. Zhang and S.B. Soumerai, "Do Newer Prescription Drugs Pay for Themselves? A Reassessment of the Evidence," Health Affairs 26, no. 3 (2007): 880-886.
2. G.E. Miller, J.F. Moeller, and R.S. Stafford, "New Cardiovascular Drugs: Patterns of Use and Association with Non-Drug Health Expenditures," Inquiry 42, no. 4 (2005-06): 397-412.
3. The authors write that "the MEPS data cannot provide information about the order of events," but the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) discloses the date the person started taking each medicine and the inpatient stay start and end dates.
4. F.R. Lichtenberg and S. Virabhak, "Pharmaceutical-Embodied Technical Progress, Longevity, and Quality of Life: Drugs as 'Equipment for Your Health'," Managerial and Decision Economics (forthcoming).
5. Calculations based on MEPS 1999 Full-Year Consolidated Data File.
6. M. Sing et al., "Reconciling Medical Expenditure Estimates from the MEPS and NHEA, 2002," Health Care Financing Review 28, no. 1 (2006): 25-40.
7. The IMS figure covers direct and indirect pharmaceutical channel purchases (pharmacies plus hospitals and mail order where indicated) from pharmaceutical wholesalers and manufacturers. See IMS Health, "World Drug Purchases - Retail Pharmacies: IMS Health - Drug Monitor: Twelve Months to December 2002," http://open.imshealth.com/download/dec2002.pdf (accessed 7 February 2007).
8. U.S. Census Bureau, "2002 Economic Census, Industry Series, Health Care and Social Assistance Reports," nos. EC02-62I-01 and EC02-62I-02, 5 July 2005, http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/guide/INDRPT62.HTM (accessed 29 November 2006);
9. MEPS Household Component Summary Tables, http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/ mepsweb/data_stats/quick_tables.jsp (accessed 12 March 2007);
10. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, National Health Expenditure Accounts, http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ 02_NationalHealthAccountsHistorical.asp (accessed 12 March 2007). The Census Bureau estimate of hospital spending consists of hospital receipts from inpatient and outpatient services, except ambulatory surgical center and nursing care services. MEPS spending for ambulatory care consists of spending on physician and clinical, dental, and other professional services. Census Bureau estimate of ambulatory care consists of patient care receipts from ambulatory health care services.
11. F.R. Lichtenberg, "The Effect of Using Newer Drugs on Admissions of Elderly Americans to Hospitals and Nursing Homes: State-Level Evidence from 1997 to 2003," PharmacoEconomics 24 Supp. (2006): 5-25.
12. M.G. Duggan and W.N. Evans, "Estimating the Impact of Medical Innovation: A Case Study of HIV Antiretroviral Treatments," NBER Working Paper no. 11109 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research 2005).
13. F. R. Lichtenberg, "Do (More and Better) Drugs Keep People Out of Hospitals?" American Economic Review 86, no. 2 (1996): 384-388.
14. See, for example, F.R. Lichtenberg, "The Impact of New Drug Launches on Longevity: Evidence from Longitudinal Disease-Level Data from Fifty-two Countries, 1982-2001," International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics 5, no. 1 (2005): 47-53;
15. and F.R. Lichtenberg, "Availability of New Drugs and Americans' Ability to Work," Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 47, no. 4 (2005): 373-380.