Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Business

Can Consumers Make Affordable Care Affordable? The Value Of Choice Architecture, Eric J. Johnson, Ran Hassin, Tom Baker, Allison T. Bajger, Galen Treuer Jul 2013

Can Consumers Make Affordable Care Affordable? The Value Of Choice Architecture, Eric J. Johnson, Ran Hassin, Tom Baker, Allison T. Bajger, Galen Treuer

All Faculty Scholarship

Starting this October, tens of millions will be choosing health coverage on a state or federal health insurance exchange as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We examine how well people make these choices, how well they think they do, and what can be done to improve these choices. We conducted 6 experiments asking people to choose the most cost-effective policy using websites modeled on current exchanges. Our results suggest there is significant room for improvement. Without interventions, respondents perform at near chance levels and show a significant bias, overweighting out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles. Financial incentives do …


Examining Mainecare’S Coverage Options Under The Affordable Care Act, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Trish Riley Mar 2013

Examining Mainecare’S Coverage Options Under The Affordable Care Act, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Trish Riley

Population Health & Health Policy

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to achieve nearly universal access to health coverage in the United States—in part by standardizing Medicaid eligibility across the country so that each state’s program would cover individuals with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL), or $15,856 for an individual and $32,499 for a family of four in 2013 (see Figure 1).i However, in June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that states could not be required to broaden Medicaid and retained the decision as a state option. States that choose to participate may do so by amending their state …


Federal Health Care Reform: An Overview, Andrew F. Coburn Phd Feb 2013

Federal Health Care Reform: An Overview, Andrew F. Coburn Phd

Population Health & Health Policy

This policy brief discusses three of the main components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as "Obamacare". These components are helath insurance coverage, delivery system improvement, and cost containment. The policy brief highlights some of the provision of the law that have already been implemented and those where importnat implementation decisions will have to be made. The brief is authored by Dr. Andrew Coburn, PhD, Professor of Public Health and Director of the Population Health and Health Policy program at the USM Muskie School, and was presented at the Maine Policy Leaders Academy Health Care …


Is More Information Always Better? Mandatory Disclosure Regulations In The Prescription Drug Market, Joanna Shepherd Jan 2013

Is More Information Always Better? Mandatory Disclosure Regulations In The Prescription Drug Market, Joanna Shepherd

Faculty Articles

This Article proceeds as follows. In Section I, I describe the structure of the PBM industry. I also describe the business model PBMs employ to administer prescription drug coverage and the methods they use to reduce prescription drug spending. In Section II, I discuss mandatory disclosure regulations enacted in several states and at the federal level under the Affordable Care Act. In Section III, I explain why mandatory disclosure regulations are not needed to ensure that health plan sponsors pay a competitive price for PBM services. In Section IV, I discuss the various costs that mandatory disclosure regulations will impose …