Are medical prices declining? Evidence from heart attack treatments
Are medical prices declining? Evidence from heart attack treatments
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DOI：
10.1162/003355398555801
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发表时间：
1998-11-01
影响因子：
13.7
通讯作者：
Remler, D
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cutler, DM;McClellan, M;Remler, D
我们通过估计两种类型的价格指数来解决衡量医疗通胀的长期问题。第一个是服务价格指数，为特定的医疗服务定价，就像目前的CPI一样。第二个是生活成本指数，衡量治疗健康问题的质量调整成本。我们将这些指数应用于1983年至1994年之间的心脏病发作治疗。更频繁地重新加权和考虑价格折扣，使心脏病发作的价格变化每年降低3个百分点。考虑到质量变化，它进一步降低;我们估计，真实的生活成本指数每年下降约1%。
We address long-standing problems in measuring medical inflation by estimating two types of price indices. The first, a Service Price Index, prices specific medical services, as does the current CPI. The second, a Cost of Living Index, measures a quality-adjusted cost of treating a health problem. We apply these indices to heart attack treatment between 1983 and 1994. More frequent reweighting and accounting for price discounts lowers the measured price change for heart attacks by three percentage points annually. Accounting for quality change lowers it further; we estimate that the real Cost of Living Index fell about 1 percent annually.