Economics of Medical Care - Lawrence University



Economics of Medical Care

M. Finkler

Policy Paper #2

Topic: The Quality of Medical Care

Although many analysts suspected that American health care featured a variety of defects, the 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report To Err is Human crystallized this concern as follows: “There is abundant evidence that serious and extensive quality problems exist throughout American medicine resulting in harm to many Americans.” The report claimed that “…At least 44,000 people and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented…”

You are to write a position paper on the quality of health care in the United States. Your primary objective is to inform a decision-maker – benefits director, legislator, or purchasing coalition manager - through the use of economic arguments and evidence, about the character of the problem and potential responses.

Class on Tuesday, October 23rd and paper #2 will be devoted to the following subtopics:

1) Defining and measuring the quality of care

2) Understanding why the deficiencies in health care quality persist

3) Analyzing policies to improve the quality of care

As with cost containment, a burgeoning literature has attempted to grapple with the above topics. Useful resources can be found at:

• The Rand Corporation: health/

• The Institute of Medicine: iom.edu

• The National Committee for Quality Assurance:

• The Leapfrog Initiative:

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: qual/

• The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Commission:

• Wisconsin Collaborative for Health Care Quality

• Bridges to Excellence

Students will be expected to have read the following background material:

• NCQA, The State of Health Care Quality 2007 – the executive summary

• McGlynn and Brook, “Time for the Naked Truth about Health Care”– Rand Corp.

• Institute of Medicine, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” - the executive summary

• Institute of Medicine, “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” – the executive summary

• Newhouse, Joseph P., “Why is There a Quality Chasm?” Health Affairs, July-August 2002. (See .)

The mechanics regarding this paper remain the same as the first paper. Papers are due on Friday, October 26th, 2007 by 4:00 P.M.

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