An important aspect of hospital revenue regulation at the State level is the use of retroactive allowances for changes in the volume of service. Arguments favoring non-proportional allowances have been based on statistical studies of marginal cost, together with concerns about fairness toward non-profit enterprises or concerns about various inflationary biases in hospital management. This artic...

Smoking behavior of consistently high and low users of medical care services were compared in two groups of older health maintenance organization (HMO) members continuously enrolled for five years and a subgroup who were continuously enrolled for 10 years. Smokers and former smokers, combined, were more likely than never-smokers to be consistently high users of ambulatory services (52 percent v...

Thank you, Chairman Bingaman and Ranking Member Murkowski, for the opportunity to testify today on policy tools to build a clean energy economy and reduce global warming pollution. My name is David Hawkins. I am Director of Climate Programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). NRDC is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated t...

This analysis challenges the medical malpractice findings of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (“Commission”) in its December 2010 report “The Moment of Truth.” Specifically, we reject its assertion in section 3.3.12 that taking away the legal rights of injured patients would “save $2 billion in 2015, $17 billion through 2020.” We find that the Commission’s proposal wo...

T.B.B has not served as a paid consultant to any for-profit interests related to this work; he has served as a paid and non-paid consultant to governmental and non-profit interests related to this work. M.C.F. has not served as a paid consultant to any for-profit interests related to this work; he has served as a paid and non-paid consultant to governmental and non-profit interests related to t...