Mixed signals: public policy and the future of health care R&D

• Published in: Health Affairs Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 112 - 125
• Main Authors: Weisbrod, B A, LaMay, C L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Health Affairs 01.03.1999; The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE
• Subjects: Ambiguity; Conflicts; Confusion; Containment; Cost Control; Costs; Economics; Forecasting; Health care; Health Care Costs; Health care expenditures; Health care policy; Health insurance; Health Policy; Heart; Humans; Incentives; Insurance; Insurance coverage; Insurance, Health - economics; Medical equipment; Medical Laboratory Science - economics; Medical research; Medical technology; Payments; Product development; Profitability; Profits; Public policy; R&D; Research & development; Research Support as Topic; Technology; Telemedicine; Transplants & implants; Uncertainty; United States; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.18.2.112

The incentives facing health care research and development (R&D) are influenced by the ambiguous signals sent by private and public insurance decisions affecting the use of, and payments for, existing technologies. Increasingly, that uncertainty is exacerbated by confusion over technologies' impact on health care costs, how costs are to be measured, and the social difficulty of determining medical "need" for purposes of insurance coverage. R&D executives appear to believe that "major" advances are more likely to win such coverage and thus to be profitable. The products that result, therefore, may make the current policy dilemma of cost containment versus service restriction more acute rather than less so. If the aim of policy is to cut costs, innovative remedies are necessary.