Publications

September 2016
Article

Value Based Care and Bundled Payments: Anesthesia Care Costs for Outpatient Oncology Surgery Using Time-driven Activity-based Costing

By: Katy E. French, Alexis B. Guzman, Augustin C. Rubio, John C. Frenzel and Thomas Feeley

Background: With the movement towards bundled payments, stakeholders should know the true cost of the care they deliver. Time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) can be used to estimate costs for each episode of care. In this analysis, TDABC is used to both... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Health Industry

February 2000
Case

E2M Health Services

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Naomi Atkins

Outlines the growth of an innovative diabetes disease management organization from 1994-99. Having demonstrated the success of their model in managing diabetes populations in Texas and New York State, the CEO and president must decide the future strategy of the company... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Markets; Revenue; Innovation and Invention; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Internet; Health Industry

Educators

January 23, 2023
Article

Digital Public Health Interventions at Scale: The Impact of Social Media Advertising on Beliefs and Outcomes Related to COVID Vaccines

By: Susan Athey, Kristen Grabarz, Michael Luca and Nils Wernerfelt

Public health organizations increasingly use social media advertising campaigns in pursuit of public health goals. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of about $40 million of social media advertisements that were run and experimentally tested on Facebook and... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Public Health; Vaccines; Social Media; Advertising; Power and Influence; Health Care and Treatment

Dec 04 2019
Interview

Measuring Costs for Better Patient Outcomes

September 2011
Article

A Cancer Center Puts the New Approach to Work: Pilot

By: Heidi W. Albright and Thomas W. Feeley

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, located in Houston, Texas. Seeing more than 30,000 new patients every year, MD Anderson accounts for approximately 20% of cancer care within the... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Quality; Measurement; Costing; Accounting; Health; Quality; Health Industry; North and Central America

January–February 2022
Article

Mobilizing the U.S. Military’s TRICARE Program for Value-Based Care: A Report From the Defense Health Board

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Paul R. Schaettle, Vivian S. Lee, Michael D. Parkinson, Gregory H. Gorman and Michael-Anne Browne

The U.S. Military Health System spends about $50 billion annually through its TRICARE health plans to provide care to 9.6 million active duty service members, retirees, and their families. TRICARE, historically, has used the predominant U.S. fee-for-service payment... View Details

Keywords: Military Health System; Value-based Healthcare; Health Care and Treatment; United States

Article

TDABC Cost Analysis of Ocular Disorders in an Ophthalmology Emergency Department versus Urgent Care: Clinical Experience at Massachusetts Eye and Ear

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Jonathan Chou, Mahek Shah, Amy Watts, Matthew Gardiner, Joan Miller and John I. Lowenstein

Purpose To perform a cost analysis comparison for managing common ocular disorders in an eye emergency department (ED) versus an urgent care setting using a time-driven activity-based cost model (TDABC) to assist physicians and staff in appropriate allocation of... View Details

Keywords: Time-driven Activity-based Cost Model; Emergency Room; Urgent Care Clinic; Cost; Analysis; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment

16 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

What Should Employers Do about Health Care?

In the United States, employers have often treated health benefits as a necessary evil. They have focused on the rising cost of providing health insurance benefits and taken... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth O. Teisberg & Scott Wallace; Health

December 2017
Article

Overall Cost Comparison of Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Procedures with Endoscopist- or Anesthesia-Supported Sedation by Activity-Based Costing Techniques

By: Richard A. Helmers, James A. Dilling, Christopher R. Chaffee, Mark V. Larson, Bradly J. Narr, Derek A. Haas and Robert S. Kaplan

Endoscopic/Colonoscopic procedures are done either with gastroenterologist-administered conscious sedation or with anesthesia-administered sedation with propofol. Anesthesia-administered sedation has medical and patient benefits but is more expensive to administer. We... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Activity Based Costing and Management

01 Mar 2014
News

Innovation: Crowdfunding College Costs

out of the recession, more and more people are asking themselves, do I really need more stuff? People are relieved to have this option." Finally, Cordero points out the stunning spike in college costs and the need to make saving easier:... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia; Gradsave; crowdfunding; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Finance

15 Oct 2014
News

Economic costs of Ebola rising as people shun human contact

22 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

not where the One Medical model acts, and that’s not where the telehealth model is. So, telehealth doesn’t become a way to bend the cost curve as much as a way to make health care easier to access. There’s... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Health

Article

Better Accounting Transforms Health Care Delivery

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Mary L. Witkowski

The paper describes the theory and preliminary results for an action research program that explores the implications from better measurements of health care outcomes and costs. After summarizing Porter's outcome taxonomy (Porter 2010), we illustrate how to use process... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Research; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

15 Dec 2014
News

Curbing the cost of cancer care

28 Aug 2015
Blog Post

What is the HBS Health Care Initiative?

Health care is on everyone’s mind these days. With so many challenges around lowering the cost of health care delivery while increasing quality and people’s access to care,... View Details

06 Jan 2015
News

Wanted: The IT-enabled Health Professional

Article

Consumers' Misunderstanding of Health Insurance

By: George Loewenstein, Joelle Y. Friedman, Barbara McGill, Sarah Ahmad, Suzanne Linck, Stacey Sinkula, John Beshears, James J. Choi, Jonathan Kolstad, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, John A. List and Kevin G. Volpp

We report results from two surveys of representative samples of Americans with private health insurance. The first examines how well Americans understand, and believe they understand, traditional health insurance coverage. The second examines whether those insured... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Economics; Simplification; Insurance; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Cognition and Thinking; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

28 Jun 2014
News

Utah hospitals try the unthinkable: Get a grip on costs

Article

The Implications of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act on Cancer Care Delivery

By: Heidi W. Albright, Mark Moreno, Thomas W. Feeley, Ronald Walters, Marc Samuels, Alissa Pereira and Thomas W. Burke

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. This legislation attempts to address cost control and improve the quality of healthcare in the United States. Cancer is a... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Policy; Health Care; Cancer Care In The U.S.; Cancer Care Services; Health; Law; Quality; Health Industry; North and Central America