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21 Results
 Patient waiting in hospital
Tracking Spending, Mortality, and Readmissions as the Number of Comprehensive Trauma Centers Increases
Media stories have raised concerns about Florida’s expansion of advanced trauma centers, with newly designated centers charging high trauma activation fees for relatively minor injuries, and Texas has experienced similar expansion in the last decade. In a new working paper, Chair in Health Economics Vivian Ho and her co-authors study the association between trauma center upgrades and patient outcomes — examining Texas commercial claims to track changes in spending, mortality, and readmissions of trauma patients
Maura Coughlin, Marah Short, Shara McClure, James Suliburk, Vivian Ho February 26, 2024
Health insurance
Estimating the Potential Profit Gains from Lowering Employee Health Care Costs for America’s Largest Companies
This report finds that America's largest companies could be increasing their profits by identifying opportunities to reign in the costs of health insurance coverage — while still maintaining or improving the quality of benefits for their employees.
Alan Beltran Lara, Cindy Nguyen, Marah Short, Vivian Ho September 19, 2022
A stethoscope on American paper currency.
Comparing Prices and Price Transparency Among Top-Ranked Hospitals and Close Competitors
A regulation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required that, starting January 1, 2021, all U.S. hospitals publicly display the cash price as well as the minimum and maximum negotiated charge for 300 “shoppable services.”
Vivian Ho, Alan Beltran Lara, David Ruiz, Peter Cram, M.D., Marah Short May 12, 2022
CDC Covid Tracker
CDC Case Report Data for COVID-19: Characterizing the Pandemic with Limited Information
Following a comprehensive review of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the authors determined that the CDC’s COVID-19 case reports contained surprisingly incomplete information about the spread of the virus in the United States. Uniform case reporting to the CDC for life-threatening pandemics should be mandated, they write.
Vivian Ho, Marah Short, Sasathorn Tapaneeyakul January 4, 2021
Doctors converse in a corridor.
Using Medicare Data to Measure Vertical Integration of Hospitals and Physicians
The results of this study suggest that Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty, which costs less to obtain than from a for-profit data source, can be used to reliably track the cost and quality effects of vertical integration between hospitals and physicians.
Vivian Ho, Sasathorn Tapaneeyakul, Marah Short, Leanne Metcalfe, Lan Vu February 4, 2020
Why mergers can impair patient care
Hospital consolidation and acquisition of physician practices theoretically make sense by creating economies of scale and complementarities in patient services. But there is also evidence that such mergers do little to restrain prices or improve patient care. Click here for a Baker Institute podcast featuring Marah Short, associate director of the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences (CHB), who recently published a paper, co-authored by CHB director Vivian Ho, on the issue.
Marah Short March 15, 2019