Cost Containment and Managed Care: Evidence from German Macro Data

Managed care as a public cost-containment mechanism.

This article identifies the impact of managed-care reforms on the utilization of medical services within the military health-services system. The data come from a recent demonstration project that substituted an HMO and PPO for traditional FFS arrangements. Results from a semiparametric model indicate that the generosity of benefits in the HMO increased demand for ambulatory services. Unlike...

Health care cost containment.

How to evaluate and implement new technologies in an era of managed care and cost containment.

New technologies often enable clinical laboratorians to overcome the challenges we face. These technologies sometimes become available with amazing punctuality, addressing recent problems and keeping the physician-customer satisfied for another day. Traditionally, developments such as a new cancer marker have been implemented into routine use with little circumspection because the benefits diag...

Cost containment in eye care.

Voluntary eye hospitals committed to serving the community must understand the reality of cost escalation due to inflation, advancements in medical technology and changing expectations of staff and patients. However, these costs are often not matched by the patients’ paying capacity. While increasing income, through increased user fees or donations which are financial options that will be consi...

Evidence from German Panel Data

Does Future PC Use Determine Our Wages Today? Evidence from German Panel Data Using 1985–1999 data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP) to analyze wages confirms the hypothesis that existing computer wage premiums are determined by individual ability or other unobserved individual characteristics rather than by productivity effects. While a rather large personal computer (PC) wage...