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At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Physician price fixing under the Sherman Act. An indirect test of the Maricopa issues.

The expression 'price fixing' usually indicates an attempt by competitors to put a floor under the minimum price they will charge. But a recent decision of the Supreme Court, Arizona v. Maricopa County, suggests that attempts to fix maximum prices are equally economically objectionable. In this paper I propose an explanation of simultaneous minimum and maximum price fixing. I also investigate empirically the distribution of physicians' fees in a closely related instance of alleged physician price fixing. The data reject any inference of successful price fixing, and instead conform to the usual predictions of the economics of costly market information.

Arizona↗
PubMed1989

Strategic regulatory entry deterrence: an empirical test in the ophthalmic market.

This paper provides an empirical test of the theory of strategic regulatory entry deterrence--the theory that subgroups of firms within an industry will use the regulatory process to increase rivals' costs and thereby deter rivals' entry. The results suggest that the commercial practice restrictions present in the ophthalmic industry deterred chain optical firms' entry into the market. This result in combination with earlier findings that the restrictions increase optometrists' prices suggests that cost-raising strategies can be used to disadvantage rivals or drive them out of the market without the need to lower price.

Commerce↗
PubMed1987

In search of economic rationality: the experience of the Polish National Health Service.

This paper discusses the problems of the use of economic incentives as a management tool in the Polish National Health Service, in which the economic approach had long been regarded as morally improper. Health, an important ethical value, was not to be defiled by direct contact with economic realities. It was only in the early 1980's that it was accepted that the non-economic approach had been destructive for both the performance and the moral climate of the NHS. Significant defects in the previous solutions stimulated a great effort to reorient and rationalize the system. In the 1940's when the Polish NHS was established, it was decided to abolish economic barriers to health care, the free access to which was perceived as essential to socialist health care. While utilization increased, access was still restricted, although not by formal barriers but by scarcity of resources. The situation became all the more painful because a general expectation of easily obtainable health services had been aroused. The health sector as a whole was underfinanced; health professionals were underpaid in comparison with professionals in other sectors; the salary system severed the link between input and reward. More productive individuals took extra jobs in the NHS and outside it, thus threatening the quality of the service. A number of rationalization measures have been taken. Special premiums, combinations of capitation and fee-for-service, new financing mechanisms, and forms of patient cost-sharing are being experimented with or considered.

Community Participation↗
PubMed1991

The reaction of private physicians to price deregulation in France.

French private physicians are paid on a fee-for-service basis and nearly all of them are under contract to the Social Security, which refunds part of the medical fee to the whole population. Previously the prices of medical services were fixed, but since 1980, a new option has been possible: a doctor can choose to fix the price of his services freely, provided he pays a higher social insurance contribution. But the amount refunded by Social Security does not vary, so that the consumer has to bear the extra charge. Our purpose here is to identify the factors that influence the physician's option. In Section 2, we define a model of the private physician's economic behaviour, of the classic income-leisure type. In Section 3, empirical tests are performed on a sample of observations in 95 'départements', gathering information about private GPs on the one hand, and the whole population on the other. According to our results, GPs' decisions depend on characteristics of both supply of and demand for GPs' services. One of our conclusions is that GPs seem to make up for low activity levels with higher prices, on condition the income of their practice allows it.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed2006

Molecular beacon real-time PCR detection of swine viruses.

Rapid and reliable detection of viral pathogens is critical for the management of the diseases threatening the economic competitiveness of the swine farming industry worldwide. Molecular beacon assays are one type of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology capable of fast, specific, sensitive, and reliable viral detection. In this paper, the development of molecular beacon assays as novel tools for the rapid detection of Aujeszky's disease virus, African swine fever virus, porcine circovirus type 2 and porcine parvovirus is described. The assays are capable of rapidly detecting 2 x 10(1) copies of target and are linear between 2 x 10(9) and 2 x 10(2) copies. They can detect virus specifically in clinical samples such as whole blood, serum and tissue. In comparison to conventional PCR they are either as sensitive or more sensitive. As such these molecular beacon assays represent a powerful tool for the detection of these viruses in swine.

African Swine Fever Virus↗
PubMed1989

Working for which patients and at what cost?

The Government's white-paper Working for Patients proposes introducing a system in which publicly financed resources for hospital and community health services will be distributed to districts and general practitioners with practice budgets for them to choose between competing providers from both the public and private sectors. The NHS Management Board in 1986 observed that such a system would be costly and impractical and would require careful pilot work in situations where its benefits are likely to outweight its costs. This paper shows that there is no reason for changing that judgement.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

The new pharmaceutical policy in Italy.

Pressed by an impressive series of corruption scandals and by a change of attitude towards cost-containment, the Italian pharmaceutical sector's regulatory environment was radically changed in 1994. Regulatory power was concentrated on a national technical body (CUF) and a new set of measures was taken, including a nationwide drug expenditure budget, a redefinition of both the positive list and the cost-sharing rules, and new price-setting models. As a result, in the period 1993-1996, nominal expenditures decreased by about L 1600 billion (ECU 83.6 billion at 1997 exchange rate), that is from 13.3% to 11.0% of current National Health Service (NHS) expenditure. While in the 1980s Italy was one of the most generous countries in funding pharmaceuticals, it is now one of the most parsimonious. Although the overall pharmaceutical market shrank in 1994 and 1995, a substantial part of NHS drug-bill savings resulted from cost-shifting from the public sector to patients, mainly because physicians have not aligned their prescribing behaviour to the new positive list. The new Italian approach to containing pharmaceutical costs has been certainly effective, at least in the short run. However, new relevant issues are emerging regarding the fall of NHS pharmaceutical coverage, the centralised nature of the Italian pharmaceutical policy and the gap between scientific based policies and actual prescribing behaviours.

Cost Control↗
PubMed2002

Effectiveness of commercial reagents for heavy metal removal from water with new insights for future chelate designs.

Toxic heavy metals in air, soil, and water are global problems that are a growing threat to the environment. To meet the federal and state guidelines for heavy metal discharge, companies often use chemical precipitation or chelating agents. In order to be competitive economically, many of these chelating ligands are simple, easy to obtain, and, generally offer weak bonding for heavy metals. Laboratory testing of three commercial reagents, trimercaptotriazine (TMT), Thio-Red potassium/sodium thiocarbonate (STC), and HMP-2000 sodium dimethyldithiocarbamate (SDTC) has shown that the compounds were unable to reduce independent solutions containing 50.00 ppm of divalent cadmium, copper, iron, lead, or mercury to meet EPA standards. Additionally, the compounds displayed high leaching rates and in some cases decomposed to produce toxic substances. In contrast, the studies demonstrate that a recently reported sulfur-containing multidentate ligand is both safe and effective for the removal of these metals.

Chelating Agents↗
PubMed2003

Environmental performance review and cost analysis of MSW landfilling by baling-wrapping technology versus conventional system.

This paper first reviews the chemical, physical and biological processes, and the environmental performance of MSW compacted and plastic-wrapped into air-tight bales with low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The baling-wrapping process halts the short and half-term biological activity and consequently the emission of gases and leachates. It also facilitates the handling of the refuse, and considerably reduces the main environmental impacts of a landfill. The main technologies available for baling-wrapping MSW are also presented. Furthermore, a cost analysis comparing a conventional landfill (CL) without baling system versus two landfills using different baling-wrapping technologies (rectangular and cylindrical bales) is carried out. The results are presented comparatively under the conditions of construction, operation and maintenance and postclosure, as required by European Directive 1999/31. A landfill using rectangular plastic-wrapped bales (LRPB) represents an economically competitive option compared to a CL. The increased capacity of the waste disposal zone when using rectangular bales due to the high density of the bales compensates for the increased operating and maintenance (O&M) costs of the method. Landfills using cylindrical plastic-wrapped bales (LCPB's) do not fare so well, mainly because the density within the bales is lower, the cylindrical geometry of the bales does not allow such an efficient use of the space within the landfill, and the processing capacity of the machinery is lower. From the cost model, the resulting unit costs per tonne in a LRPB, a LCPB and a CL for 100,000 t/year of waste, an operation time of 15 years and a landfill depth (H) of 20 m, are 31.52, 43.36 and 31.83 /t, respectively.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1987

Health maintenance organizations: just what the doctor ordered?

Following its recent reorganisation of the management of the hospital sector of the NHS, the Government is currently engaged in a review of the primary health care sector. Certain of its proposals may be interpreted as suggesting movement towards a system modelled on American-style Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). This article seeks to explore the context in which HMOs have developed, to assess their current performance and to evaluate their potential impact on the health delivery system. It suggests that they must be understood primarily in the context of initiatives aimed at reducing health expenditure, and finds that the cost advantages claimed for them are achieved through reduced utilization rather than through greater efficiency. It also argues that this reduced utilisation is likely to increase inequalities in health care.

Cost Control↗
PubMed1995

Outcomes measurement. The key to the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals.

Outcomes measurement will be key to the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals as health care costs continue to rise. The generation of data showing the clinical, economic, and humanistic outcomes of pharmaceutical care will be essential to avoid decision making based solely on cost and to ensure that cost-effective, high-quality health care remains the health care system's top priority.

Drug Industry↗