Findings on Medicare Discussed by Investigators at NBER (The impact of consumer inattention on insurer pricing in the Medicare Part D program)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Data detailed on Medicare and Medicaid - Medicare have been presented. According to news originating from Cambridge, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "The Medicare Part D program relies on consumer choice to provide insurers with incentives to offer low-priced, high-quality pharmaceutical insurance plans. We demonstrate that consumers switch plans infrequently and search imperfectly."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from NBER, "We estimate a model of consumer plan choice with inattentive consumers and show that high observed premiums are consistent with insurers profiting from consumer inertia. We estimate the reduction in steady state plan premiums if all consumers were attentive."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "An average consumer could save $1050 over three years; government savings in the same period could amount to $1.3 billion or 1% of the cost of subsidizing the relevant enrollees."

For more information on this research see: The impact of consumer inattention on insurer pricing in the Medicare Part D program. Rand Journal of Economics, 2017;48(4):877-905. Rand Journal of Economics can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - www.wiley.com/; Rand Journal of Economics - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1756-2171)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from K. Ho, NBER, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States. Additional authors for this research include J. Hogan and F.S. Morton (see also Medicare and Medicaid - Medicare).

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/1756-2171.12207. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America, Medicare and Medicaid, Health Policy, NBER.

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