The Role of Government Reimbursement in Drug Shortages

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yurukoglu, Ali; Liebman, Eli; Ridley, David B.
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Duke University; Duke University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20160035
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 348-382
• 关键词: health-care; price; COMPETITION; MARKET; demand; cancer; IMPACT

摘要

Beginning in the mid-2000s, the incidence of drug shortages rose, especially for generic injectable drugs such as anesthetics and chemotherapy treatments. We examine whether reimbursement changes contributed to the shortages, focusing on a reduction in Medicare Part B reimbursement to providers for drugs. We hypothesize that lower reimbursement put downward pressure on manufacturers' prices, which reduced manufacturers' incentives to invest in capacity, reliability, and new launches. We show that after the policy change, shortages rose more for drugs with higher shares of patients insured by Medicare, greater decreases in provider reimbursement, and greater decreases in manufacturer prices.