In this paper, we estimate price indices for heart attack treatments, demonstrating the techniques that are currently used in official price indices and presenting some alternatives. We consider two types of price indices, a Service Price Index, which prices specific treatments provided, and a Cost of Living Index, which prices the health outcomes of patients. Both indices are complicated by price measurement issues: list prices and transactions prices are fundamentally different in the medical care field. The development of new or modified medical treatments further complicates the comparison of like' goods over time. And the Cost of Living Index is hampered by the need to determine how much of health improvement results from medical treatments in comparison to other factors. We describe methods to address each of these obstacles. We conclude that whereas traditional price indices when applied to heart attack treatments are rising at roughly 3 percent per year above general inflation, a corrected service price index is rising at perhaps 1 to 2 percent per year above general inflation, and the cost of living index is falling by 1 to 2 percent per year relative to general inflation. We discuss the implications of these results for official price index calculations.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
7089.
Length: Date of creation: Apr 1999 Date of revision: Publication status: published relationship to a non-chapter. This should not happen. Please contact NBER. Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7089
Note: AG HC PR Contact details of provider: Postal: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Phone: 617-868-3900 Email: Web page: http://www.nber.org More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: ().
Related research
Keywords:
Other versions of this item:
Chapter
David M. Cutler & Mark B. McClellan & Joseph P. Newhouse & Dahlia K. Remler, 2001.
"Pricing Heart Attack Treatments,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Medical Care Output and Productivity, pages 305-362
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!]
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Diane Dawson & Hugh Gravelle & Mary O'Mahony & Andrew Street & Martin Weale & Adriana Castelli & Rowena Jacobs & Paul Kind & Pete Loveridge & Stephen Martin & Philip Stevens & Lucy Stokes, 2005.
"Developing new approaches to measuring NHS outputs and productivity,"
Working Papers
006cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York, revised Dec 2005.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Jonathan Skinner & Elliott Fisher & John E. Wennberg, 2001.
"The Efficiency of Medicare,"
NBER Working Papers
8395, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Jonathan S. Skinner & Elliott S. Fisher & John Wennberg, 2005.
"The Efficiency of Medicare,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Analyses in the Economics of Aging, pages 129-160
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!]