Incentives and performance in the health care system. Changes in financial incentives for health care providers will have direct effects on their behaviour, which in turn influences patients' health outcomes, quality of care, and access to health care for the population. The research will provide a richer understanding of the effects of incentives, and will influence policy on the design of incentives for health care providers in Australia. Changes in incentives will ensure patients receive mo ....Incentives and performance in the health care system. Changes in financial incentives for health care providers will have direct effects on their behaviour, which in turn influences patients' health outcomes, quality of care, and access to health care for the population. The research will provide a richer understanding of the effects of incentives, and will influence policy on the design of incentives for health care providers in Australia. Changes in incentives will ensure patients receive more appropriate, higher quality, and less costly health care, in the most appropriate settings, and delivered by the most appropriate health care providers. This will have direct effects on population health and well-being and the capacity of individuals to lead healthy and productive lives.Read moreRead less
Harm-minimisation policies and the economics of controlling illicit drug use. The use of illicit drugs and its consequences are of major concern in Australia. Policies seeking to directly curb illicit drug use have met with mixed success and, over time, pressure has been placed on policymakers to switch toward increased reliance on harm-minimisation policies. This switch can generate adverse incentive effects by reducing the user costs of illicit drug use which acts to increase illicit drug use. ....Harm-minimisation policies and the economics of controlling illicit drug use. The use of illicit drugs and its consequences are of major concern in Australia. Policies seeking to directly curb illicit drug use have met with mixed success and, over time, pressure has been placed on policymakers to switch toward increased reliance on harm-minimisation policies. This switch can generate adverse incentive effects by reducing the user costs of illicit drug use which acts to increase illicit drug use. Cost-effectively mitigating these adverse incentive effects can improve the effectiveness of policy by promoting harm- minimisation without seriously sacrificing drug use abstinence objectives. Read moreRead less
Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners. Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work valu ....Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners. Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work value in Australia.
* Reflection of the profession's geographical heterogeneity in policy recommendations.
Expected outcomes:
* Improved measurements of effects of geographcial location on costs, remuneration and relative work value of rural GPs.
* Improved understanding of effects of differential rates of GP bulk-billing.Read moreRead less
Social and health inequalities related to changes in drinking water in rural Victoria. This project will add significantly to knowledge about the role of water in health. Dental caries (decay) experience over an individual's life time is influenced by dental health in early childhood. Obesity and overweight in early childhood is also a predictor of later life obesity. Both these conditions reduce life chances and wellbeing for Australians and are costly for communities. Understanding why and how ....Social and health inequalities related to changes in drinking water in rural Victoria. This project will add significantly to knowledge about the role of water in health. Dental caries (decay) experience over an individual's life time is influenced by dental health in early childhood. Obesity and overweight in early childhood is also a predictor of later life obesity. Both these conditions reduce life chances and wellbeing for Australians and are costly for communities. Understanding why and how choices about drinks for children are made by parents using a longitudinal design will help to develop interventions and policies that support the use of water in preference to sweetened and acidic beverages. 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
Modelling Inequalities in Health in Australia in the Area of Obesity. This research will contribute to a body of knowledge that informs government policy and falls under a National Research Priority - Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. Obesity is a serious health problem among adult Australians and the situation is likely to worsen if left unchecked. The first task in addressing this issue is to identify who is at risk. In this project we will use multiple and robust techniques to examine t ....Modelling Inequalities in Health in Australia in the Area of Obesity. This research will contribute to a body of knowledge that informs government policy and falls under a National Research Priority - Promoting and Maintaining Good Health. Obesity is a serious health problem among adult Australians and the situation is likely to worsen if left unchecked. The first task in addressing this issue is to identify who is at risk. In this project we will use multiple and robust techniques to examine this issue. Our research will therefore help in targeting public resources to those that can really benefit, as we hypothesise markets in health do not clear efficiently for a multitude of reasons. Read moreRead less
Modelling health: Reporting behaviour and misclassification using survey data. Empirical models based on large scale survey data sets are used by health economists to inform policymakers. However, in the case of sensitive topics, a potential for survey misreporting may lead to inaccurate estimates of aberrant behaviours. To date, little work has been done analysing the extent and consequences of inaccurate reporting, especially within health economics. By addressing areas where potential for mis ....Modelling health: Reporting behaviour and misclassification using survey data. Empirical models based on large scale survey data sets are used by health economists to inform policymakers. However, in the case of sensitive topics, a potential for survey misreporting may lead to inaccurate estimates of aberrant behaviours. To date, little work has been done analysing the extent and consequences of inaccurate reporting, especially within health economics. By addressing areas where potential for misinformation is high, the overall quality of results will be enhanced. This research will be submitted to highly ranked health economics and econometrics journals to be made available to relevant policymakers intent on ensuring a healthy society.Read moreRead less
Health Production Functions: Effects of Socioeconomic and Lifestyle Factors on Health Status. Improving the health and wellbeing of individuals is a priority for the Australian government. Empirical knowledge on the determinants of health is crucial for effective allocation of public health funds. We propose a thorough economic investigation into the interrelationships between self-assessed health, chronic conditions, obesity, private insurance status, and socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, us ....Health Production Functions: Effects of Socioeconomic and Lifestyle Factors on Health Status. Improving the health and wellbeing of individuals is a priority for the Australian government. Empirical knowledge on the determinants of health is crucial for effective allocation of public health funds. We propose a thorough economic investigation into the interrelationships between self-assessed health, chronic conditions, obesity, private insurance status, and socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, using advanced microeconometric techniques and comprehensive national and Victorian health surveys. We will link the micro-level findings to economic and policy implications for the Australian health sector and society. The research will be valuable in the design and evaluation of health promotion programs.Read moreRead less
Developing methods for benefit measurement in health-related economic analyses and their use in selecting public health promotional programs. The program involves the creation, validation and use of a suite of instruments for evaluating outcomes of health promotional programs, including adult and childhood obesity, depression and smoking - areas that are universally recognised as being of importance for the Australian community. The program will provide multiple scoring algorithms for each of th ....Developing methods for benefit measurement in health-related economic analyses and their use in selecting public health promotional programs. The program involves the creation, validation and use of a suite of instruments for evaluating outcomes of health promotional programs, including adult and childhood obesity, depression and smoking - areas that are universally recognised as being of importance for the Australian community. The program will provide multiple scoring algorithms for each of the instruments in order to test the sensitivity of results to assumptions made about social values, and will produce Australian estimates of the person trade-off weights used in the Australian and Victorian Burden of Disease studies (which presently use Dutch PTO weights). Read moreRead less
Impacts of Population Ageing and Prevalence of Chronic Illnesses on Labour Market Outcomes and Health Service Utilisation. The Australian population is ageing due to the combined effects of increasing life expectancy and decreasing birth rate. The prevalence of major chronic illnesses including diabetes, heart disease and mental health conditions has also increased consistently. With a suite of state-of-the-art econometric and simulation models, we propose the first comprehensive analysis at the ....Impacts of Population Ageing and Prevalence of Chronic Illnesses on Labour Market Outcomes and Health Service Utilisation. The Australian population is ageing due to the combined effects of increasing life expectancy and decreasing birth rate. The prevalence of major chronic illnesses including diabetes, heart disease and mental health conditions has also increased consistently. With a suite of state-of-the-art econometric and simulation models, we propose the first comprehensive analysis at the individual level of the complex relationships between health status, chronic illnesses, labour market decisions, private health insurance status, and health service utilisations of older Australians. The research will enhance the technical rigour and capacity for analysing a range of health and ageing related policies and issues.Read moreRead less