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The Lifetime Costs and Benefits of Medical Technology

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Author Info
David M. Cutler

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Abstract

Measuring the lifetime costs and benefits of medical technologies is essential in evaluating technological change and determining the productivity of medical care. Using data on Medicare beneficiaries with a heart attack in the late 1980s and 17 years of follow up data, I evaluate the long-term costs and benefits of revascularization after a heart attack. I account for non-random selection into treatment with instrumental variables; following McClellan, McNeil, and Newhouse, the instrument is the differential distance to a hospital capable of providing revascularization. The results show that revascularization is associated with over 1 year of additional life expectancy, at a cost of about $40,000. Revascularization, or other treatments correlated with it, appears to be highly cost-effective.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13478.

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Date of creation: Oct 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13478

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I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Amitabh Chandra & Douglas O. Staiger, 2007. "Productivity Spillovers in Health Care: Evidence from the Treatment of Heart Attacks," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115, pages 103-140. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Newey, Whitney K, 1990. "Efficient Instrumental Variables Estimation of Nonlinear Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(4), pages 809-37, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Newhouse, Joseph P, 1992. "Medical Care Costs: How Much Welfare Loss?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 3-21, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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