Competition in medical labour markets. A sharp increase in the supply of medical practitioners has occurred in Australia. This is expensive and has uncertain effects on population health, earnings, and the distribution of medical practitioners. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of competition and increased supply on the prices charged, the quality of care provided, and the health status of patients. The research also aims to examine the location choices of medical practitioners an ....Competition in medical labour markets. A sharp increase in the supply of medical practitioners has occurred in Australia. This is expensive and has uncertain effects on population health, earnings, and the distribution of medical practitioners. The aim of this project is to examine the impact of competition and increased supply on the prices charged, the quality of care provided, and the health status of patients. The research also aims to examine the location choices of medical practitioners and is expected to generate new and important evidence using unique longitudinal data.Read moreRead less
The identification and measurement of equity and other health sector objectives. The project will investigate public expectations and values about the health system. The results will: (i) challenge the recent WHO evaluation of health systems in which 75 percent of the total score came from objectives other than population health; (ii) provide policy makers with numerical scores to indicate the relative importance of different broad objectives (such as access and the distribution of health servic ....The identification and measurement of equity and other health sector objectives. The project will investigate public expectations and values about the health system. The results will: (i) challenge the recent WHO evaluation of health systems in which 75 percent of the total score came from objectives other than population health; (ii) provide policy makers with numerical scores to indicate the relative importance of different broad objectives (such as access and the distribution of health services and the question of access to services); (iii) provide health service researchers with numerical scores to indicate where there are higher priority services or recipients: for example, the young or those with long term disabilities.Read moreRead less
The effect of competition and doctor heterogeneity on prices charged by doctors. Prices charged by doctors can have important effects on health care costs, access to health care and health status. This research will examine the determinants of prices charged by doctors. The results will be important in understanding the pricing practices of doctors and their impact on health care costs.
Bargaining and the price of new pharmaceuticals in Australia: An empirical analysis. The proposed research will consider whether there is a trade-off between price and access and will identify features of the regulatory framework that contribute to delays in securing access to drugs for diseases with no alternative therapy. It will provide decision makers with the necessary information to negotiate the lowest achievable price for drugs, freeing up resources for use elsewhere in the health sector ....Bargaining and the price of new pharmaceuticals in Australia: An empirical analysis. The proposed research will consider whether there is a trade-off between price and access and will identify features of the regulatory framework that contribute to delays in securing access to drugs for diseases with no alternative therapy. It will provide decision makers with the necessary information to negotiate the lowest achievable price for drugs, freeing up resources for use elsewhere in the health sector or slowing the growth in healthcare expenditure.Read moreRead less
The role of taxes and subsidies in promoting healthy lifestyles: an economic analysis. This project will look at two critically important policy relevant questions in public health terms - obesity prevention and changing consumption patterns with respect to drinks consumption, including alcohol.
Economic Modelling of the Nurses' Labour Market in Australia. Nurses play an important role in the health system and help to ensure individuals lead healthier, happier and more productive lives. Devising cost-effective policies to ensure an adequate supply of motivated and productive nurses is crucial in achieving efficiency and equity in the health care system. The results will be used by government to help set optimal pay and conditions for nurses, and to ensure that these are competitive with ....Economic Modelling of the Nurses' Labour Market in Australia. Nurses play an important role in the health system and help to ensure individuals lead healthier, happier and more productive lives. Devising cost-effective policies to ensure an adequate supply of motivated and productive nurses is crucial in achieving efficiency and equity in the health care system. The results will be used by government to help set optimal pay and conditions for nurses, and to ensure that these are competitive with other nurse employers. This will provide a firm evidence-base to reduce nurse shortages and therefore increase the quality of patient care in Australia.Read moreRead less
Measuring Hospital Performance: Outputs, Quality of Care, Competition and Efficiency. Hospitals are a critical component of the health infrastructure. An understanding of the performance of hospitals is important in shaping an overall health care strategy. Unfortunately, assessing hospital performance has been fraught with difficulties. A major obstacle is in defining and measuring the outputs and quality of hospitals. Collaborating with the Victorian Department of Human Services, and using t ....Measuring Hospital Performance: Outputs, Quality of Care, Competition and Efficiency. Hospitals are a critical component of the health infrastructure. An understanding of the performance of hospitals is important in shaping an overall health care strategy. Unfortunately, assessing hospital performance has been fraught with difficulties. A major obstacle is in defining and measuring the outputs and quality of hospitals. Collaborating with the Victorian Department of Human Services, and using the Department's VAED datasets, we aim to develop a framework within which unobservable quality dimensions can be estimated, so that hospital output and quality can be accounted for. The framework will be useful for addressing pertinent health policy issues, including hospital funding, specialisation, and competition issues.Read moreRead less
Blended payment systems for doctors: evaluation of an experiment. The results of the study will provide new evidence for health care policy makers in Australia (and internationally) on the effects of changing the remuneration system for GPs on the costs and quality of health care provided. The study will examine effects in the national priority and national health priority areas of preventive health care and chronic disease. The results will be relevant to other countries, such as the US and U ....Blended payment systems for doctors: evaluation of an experiment. The results of the study will provide new evidence for health care policy makers in Australia (and internationally) on the effects of changing the remuneration system for GPs on the costs and quality of health care provided. The study will examine effects in the national priority and national health priority areas of preventive health care and chronic disease. The results will be relevant to other countries, such as the US and UK, where blended payments schemes exist for GPs but have not been evaluated. Read moreRead less
Physician Preferences for Medical Innovation. This project aims to identify the causes and consequences of medical practice variations by providing new evidence on the process through which physicians adopt and use new medical technology. This project expects to generate new knowledge on how physicians' human and social capital determine their preferences for taking up new medical technology and the economic consequences of such decisions. Expected outcomes of this project include a greater unde ....Physician Preferences for Medical Innovation. This project aims to identify the causes and consequences of medical practice variations by providing new evidence on the process through which physicians adopt and use new medical technology. This project expects to generate new knowledge on how physicians' human and social capital determine their preferences for taking up new medical technology and the economic consequences of such decisions. Expected outcomes of this project include a greater understanding of the sources for and costs of inappropriate use of healthcare, such as low-value care. This should provide significant benefits, such as contributing to the construction of effective policies for improving efficiency and equity of the healthcare system.Read moreRead less
Understanding the Labour Market for Professional Nurses: An Economic Analysis of Skill Shortages, Nurse Retention and Turnover. There is currently a worldwide shortage of nurses. This shortage is particularly acute in a number of publicly dominated health care systems including the Australian, British and Canadian systems. Given that nurses are a key input in the production of health care and therefore health, the need to address this issue by increasing the number of school-leavers entering the ....Understanding the Labour Market for Professional Nurses: An Economic Analysis of Skill Shortages, Nurse Retention and Turnover. There is currently a worldwide shortage of nurses. This shortage is particularly acute in a number of publicly dominated health care systems including the Australian, British and Canadian systems. Given that nurses are a key input in the production of health care and therefore health, the need to address this issue by increasing the number of school-leavers entering the profession and/or improving the retention of training nurses is of paramount importance. This project will use high quality cross-sectional and longitudinal data on nurses to provide a detailed investigation of the retention and turnover behaviour of nurses and inform the policy debate.Read moreRead less