The NIHCM Foundation https://www.nihcm.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, has awarded over $400,000 in grants to support seven university studies. CEO Nancy Chockley said, “Our grants demonstrate NIHCM’s ongoing commitment to high quality research to inform decision-makers and improve healthcare.”
The research studies include:
- Over investment in Technology: The Curious Case of MRI Scanners—(Yale University). The award for $88,607 will use a mix of public and private sector healthcare claims to estimate a structural model of MRI market entry, pricing, and market share to simulate the impact of policies that could limit overinvestment in MRIs and other technologies
- Persuasion in Physician-Industry Relations: Medical Devices—(University of Pennsylvania). The award for $66.528 will examine the pattern of payments from medical device manufacturers to physicians. The study will estimate the causal impact of payments on the use of promoted devices, negotiated prices, and patient outcomes.
- Effect of Tiered Physician Networks on Healthcare Use and Provider Behavior—(Harvard and Northwestern University). The award for $59,165 will quantify the system-wide effects of tiered physician networks on referrals, hospital choice, and healthcare use and spending. The study will also assess how impact varies based on the design features of the tiered networks, urban or rural market location, and the competitiveness of the local physician market
- Impact of Hospital Consolidation on Access, Quality and Disparities—(New York University). The award for $60,620 will investigate the impact of hospital mergers in New York on access and quality for Medicaid patients and disparities relative to privately insured patients
- Pricing the Value of a Cure—(Institute for Clinical and Economic Review). The award for $58,640 will evaluate different approaches to determining fair, value-based prices for high price innovative drugs. The next step will be to apply them to a real world case study of an emerging potential cure and incorporate them into ICER’s value assessment framework
- Impact of Medicaid Expansions on Prenatal Care & Birth Outcomes—(Virginia Commonwealth University). The award for $58,740 will compare changes in outcomes for mothers in states that expanded Medicaid versus states that did not expand Medicaid