HEOR

Hospitals in the U.S. spend an estimated 40% of their annual budgets on supplies, medical devices and equipment alone.[1, 2] According to the American Hospital Association, in 2015 total expenditures by U.S. hospitals was $808 billion.[3] That implies that if the 40% supply and equipment estimate is correct, hospitals are spending more than $320 billion…

Cancer care is a large part of overall health care expenditures. Of the approximately 18% of U.S. gross domestic product spent on healthcare, more than 5% is attributed to cancer treatments.[1] Considering the premature mortality associated with cancer, the humanistic and economic toll is enormous. Consequently, in recent years there has been increasing attention devoted…

Although the U.S. lacks a centralized health technology evaluation agency, as many of the European countries maintain, in recent years there has been considerable pressure to control the rising costs of new biopharmaceuticals and medical devices.[1-5] After relatively slow growth in the 1960s, U.S. health care expenditures grew intensely in the decades between 1980 and…

Prices in health care vary widely even within the same local market and for similar tests and treatments. This reflects differences among providers in their ability and willingness to leverage bargaining power against private insurers. For their part, consumers and patients often have been indifferent to price since they have been well covered by insurance.…