Middlemen Pushing Up Retail Costs of Drugs

The reality is that non-price factors, including several players, are causing net prices to decline and retail prices to increase. Those players include employers, health plans, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), all of whom have continuously circumvented the system through loopholes and complicated systems of reimbursement that tend to hurt patients

Healthcare dominates the job market.

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Healthcare and social assistance are among the most important…

Caution towards CMS Data Sources for Healthcare Legislation

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Policymakers rely on accurate and timely data when implementing legislation or regulation to address biopharmaceutical spending in the U.S. Based on this research, policymakers may want to utilize other sources in addition to NHE data provided by CMS when making policy recommendations. 
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Healthcare Employs More on Cape Cod Than Any Other Sector

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Despite being a major tourist destination, the largest employment sector on Cape Cod is not related to tourism: it is healthcare!

How did COVID impact Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities?

Pioneer Institute has filed a Public Records Act request related to COVID's impact on Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities because the Institute believes this is a matter of obvious importance, both on principle (the public has a right to know the facts), and for purposes of evaluating – and where possible improving – public policy. 

Valuing Life-Saving Drugs: What is the Price of Life and Who Decides?

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute visiting fellow Dr. Bill Smith about Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) standards, and the ways in which so-called objective cost-containing strategies use expert opinion to determine the value of a life and thereby disadvantage the elderly, disabled, and those with less common vulnerabilities to disease.

Massachusetts Should Disclose More Information about Its Recent Reduction in the Official Count of Long-term Care Deaths

The public -- particularly in Massachusetts, where COVID-19’s toll on elders has been so great -- has a right to know how many deaths occurred in state-regulated eldercare facilities, and how that compares to the total number of deaths. But the state's new counting standard clouds this information, and should be corrected or at least disclosed.

Doctor Heal Thyself: Insider’s Prescription For Healthcare Reform

Host Joe Selvaggi talks with surgeon and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Marty Makary about the healthcare reform themes in The Price We Pay, the 2020 Business Book of the Year.  The discussion covers the value of price transparency, provider accountability, and performance information to drive better medical outcomes and improve doctor and patient satisfaction.

Pioneer Institute’s 2021 Government Transparency Resolutions: Sunshine Week Edition

As it does each year, Pioneer shares the resolutions it hopes state leaders will adopt to bring government actions into better focus and invigorate our democracy with heightened public engagement. As the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis noted, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

Getting Nursing Home Care Right

Pioneer Institute has long recognized that seniors deserve the best of care and that innovative policy solutions are necessary to ensure that this population enjoys a high quality of life in their later years. In the 1990s, early 2000s and most recently in 2017, the Institute dedicated Better Government Competition topics to policy issues related to aging in America. Our goal each time was to find solutions and to take advantage of new innovations that would improve the quality of life and care for the elderly.

HHS COVID Funding Tracker

As of July, the Feds have distributed $86.7 billion to medical providers, of which $2.3 billion came to Massachusetts. Pioneer’s new HHS COVID-19 Funding app shows who and how much, from the $1 sent to American Current Care of Massachusetts, to the $418,034,675 sent to the MA Department of Public Health. We also break down the distribution by city or town.

A Wealth of Data: A Map of the Massachusetts Opioid Epidemic

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In 2016, the rate of opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts…

Can State Pensioners Pay for Future Medically Necessary Long-term Care?

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At some point many people find themselves needing help to care…

Moving the Needle on Healthcare Cost Containment & Reform

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Today, Pioneer Institute submitted recommendations to the Commonwealth…

Creating Space for Healthcare Innovators in the Marketplace

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Pioneer Institute's initiatives in healthcare focus on three…

Time for Boston to open up to limited service clinics

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As a little girl I have a dim memory of my mother taking me to…

Governor’s Plan to Cap Healthcare Provider Prices Misses the Mark

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The Governor filed a number of healthcare market reform proposals…

State Leadership Needed on Healthcare Price Transparency

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Governor Baker’s recent healthcare proposals include provisions…

Achieving a Sustainable and Transparent Healthcare System

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As the Legislative Special Commission on Provider Price Variation…

Telemedicine: The Future of Healthcare

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Telemedicine sounds a bit like science-fiction, but the practice…

How To Tell If The Price Is Right: Fostering Transparency in Healthcare Prices for Massachusetts Consumers

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Notwithstanding a Massachusetts law requiring the clear, prompt…