By Philip W. Chui, Craig S. Parzynski, Joseph S. Ross, Nihar R. Desai, Hitinder S. Gurm, John A. Spertus, Arnold h. Seto, Vivian Ho and Jeptha P. Curtis
Certificate of need regulations are intended to coordinate new health care services, limit expansion of unnecessary new infrastructure and limit health care costs. This study characterizes the association between state regulations and the appropriateness and outcomes of percutaneous coronary interventions. JAHA: https://bit.ly/2QSWMNa
By Kevin Erickson, Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, Vivian Ho, Jay Bhattacharya, and Glenn M. Chertow
The authors investigate if dialysis facility consolidation was associated with patient mortality. They find that decreased market competition for these facilities may have led to increased mortality for patients in areas with very few dialysis centers. Read this article in Value in Health at: https://bit.ly/2LXmTUR.
A series of converging trends provided political cover for reforms of long-standing energy subsidies launched by oil-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa, but the new policies appear to be designed to update — rather than jettison — rent-based autocratic governance.
Vivian Ho, director of the Center for Health and Biosciences, examines some of the major reasons critics dislike the Affordable Care Act and offers policy recommendations for refining the legislation in the Annual Review of Medicine.
Nonresident scholar Kevin Erickson is a co-author of a study that examined trends in employment among patients initiating dialysis and in the six months before end stage renal disease.
The United States appears less exposed to geopolitical risks affecting its oil supply than at any time since the early 1970s due to fracking, climate change and a more diverse energy supply, according to research by energy fellow Jim Krane and Kenneth B. Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies.
The author determines that in 2016, freestanding emergency departments in Texas were more likely to be in areas that could yield high profits — i.e., areas with significantly higher household incomes — than in areas of high demand.
A combination of factors is encouraging Saudi Arabia to consider raising crude oil production capacity beyond the current ceiling of 12.5 million barrels per day. However, an increase in Saudi crude oil production would have consequences for markets and competing forms of energy, as well as for the kingdom's geopolitical stature, writes fellow Jim Krane in an article for Energy Policy.