August 2022 Mercatus on Healthcare

Updates on healthcare research and commentary by the Mercatus Center's Open Health Project

Over the past couple of months, the Mercatus Center’s Open Health Project added two new post-doctoral fellows: Markus Bjoerkheim is conducting research on the effects of certificate-of-need laws on hospital prices, and Vitor Melo is using our novel Healthcare RegData data series to study the evolution of US healthcare regulations. We are also studying the ways in which the Public Health Service Act of 1944 enabled the scope creep of public health experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, catch up on our latest publications:

Evergreening: The High Price of Regulatory Loopholes (blog post) by Kofi Ampaabeng and Justin Leventhal

At Open Health Policy, the Open Health Project’s new blog, Kofi Ampaabeng and Justin Leventhal explain what evergreening is, how it drives up the price of prescription drugs, and what the FDA can do to realign incentives and improve oversight.

Greater Autonomy and Integration for Midwives Improves Maternity Care Outcomes (testimony) by Lauren K. Hall

Ohio struggles with poor maternal and infant outcomes. Removing regulatory barriers to high-quality midwifery care has been shown repeatedly to lower risks to infants and mothers. Lauren Hall argued that Ohio should consider removing requirements for physician supervision and hospital transfer agreements.

What Will Be Done with South Carolina's Controversial Health Care Law (op-ed) by Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell presented evidence from dozens of peer-reviewed studies that certificate-of-need (CON) laws do not cut costs, do not improve healthcare quality, and restrict access. He proposed that South Carolina follow the lead of other states in repealing their own CON laws.

Potentially Tainted Alzheimer’s Research Exposes Flaws in NIH Funding Process (blog post) by Kofi Ampaabeng

Kofi Ampaabeng unpacked the suspicions raised in a recent Science Magazine article over the scientific foundations of two decades of research on Alzheimer’s disease and how the NIH’s grant allocation process might have contributed to billions of tax-funded grants being wasted on bad research.

The Looming Insolvency of Medicare’s Hospital Trust Fund (op-ed) by Elise Amez-Droz and Lisa Grabert

According to the Medicare Trustees Report released recently, the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which pays for hospital services in Medicare Part A, is going to be insolvent by 2028. Elise Amez-Droz and Lisa Grabert explained at Modern Healthcare what consequences the insolvency will have for patients and providers.