Publications

Educators

February 2016
Case

Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A)

By: John Beshears, Patrick Rooney and Jenny Sanford

The pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) sector processes prescription drug claims on behalf of companies that offer a prescription drug benefit to their employees. This case follows Bob Nease, Chief Scientist at Express Scripts, as he considers methods to promote home... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Prescription Drugs; Pharmacy Benefit Manager; PBM; Healthcare; Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Active Choice; Service Delivery; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Care and Treatment; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Compensation and Benefits; Pharmaceutical Industry

Educators

March 2016 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Express Scripts: Promoting Prescription Drug Home Delivery (A) and (B)

By: John Beshears

The pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) sector processes prescription drug claims on behalf of companies that offer a prescription drug benefit to their employees. The case associated with this teaching note follows Bob Nease, chief scientist at Express Scripts, as he... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Prescription Drugs; Pharmacy Benefit Manager; PBM; Healthcare; Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Active Choice; Service Delivery; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Distribution Channels; Health Care and Treatment; Service Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2020
Article

Evaluation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Integration with Hospital Electronic Health Records by US County-Level Opioid Prescribing Rates

By: A Jay Holmgren and Nate Apathy

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) have become a widely embraced policy solution to the opioid epidemic in the US. PDMPs offer prescribers a comprehensive view of patients’ controlled substance prescription history and can be used to monitor and reduce... View Details

Keywords: Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs; PDMPs; Electronic Health Records; Hospitals; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Integration; Performance Evaluation

August 2024
Article

How Do Copayment Coupons Affect Branded Drug Prices and Quantities Purchased?

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Kate Ho and Edward Kong

Drug copayment coupons to reduce patient cost-sharing have become nearly ubiquitous for high-priced brand-name prescription drugs. Medicare bans such coupons on the grounds that they are kickbacks that induce utilization, but they are commonly used by... View Details

Keywords: Prescription Drugs; Coupons; Impact; Health Care and Treatment; Markets; Price; Spending; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

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February 14, 2019
Other Article

We Should Treat Algorithms like Prescription Drugs

By: Andy Coravos, Irene Chen, Ankit Gordhandas and Ariel Dora Stern

Article

A Prescriptive Analytics Framework for Optimal Policy Deployment Using Heterogeneous Treatment Effects

By: Edward McFowland III, Sandeep Gangarapu, Ravi Bapna and Tianshu Sun

We define a prescriptive analytics framework that addresses the needs of a constrained decision-maker facing, ex ante, unknown costs and benefits of multiple policy levers. The framework is general in nature and can be deployed in any utility maximizing context, public... View Details

Keywords: Prescriptive Analytics; Heterogeneous Treatment Effects; Optimization; Observed Rank Utility Condition (OUR); Between-treatment Heterogeneity; Machine Learning; Decision Making; Analysis; Mathematical Methods

Research Summary

Physician vs. Patient Incentives in Prescription Drug Choice

The market for medical care involves interactions among patients, providers, and the insurers who pay for the care of their enrollees. The division of responsibilities creates scope for agency costs and moral hazard in the physician's treatment choice.... View Details

July 2020
Article

Lessons from the Impact of Price Regulation on the Pricing of Anticancer Drugs in Germany

By: Victoria D. Lauenroth, Aaron S. Kesselheim, Ameet Sarpatwari and Ariel Dora Stern

Worldwide spending on prescription drugs has increased dramatically in recent years. Although this increase has been particularly pronounced in the U.S., it remains largely unaddressed there. In Europe, however, different approaches to regulating drug prices have been... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceuticals; Prescription Drug Costs; Drug Pricing; Access To Care; Cost Reduction; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost Management; Germany

November 1969 (Revised February 1973)
Background Note

Note on the U.S. Prescription Drug Industry, Part II

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven and Audrey T. Sproat

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

15 May 2018
News

Where do prescription drugs come from? Good luck answering that question

Web

Drug & Alcohol Policy | About

Drug & Alcohol Policy Overview of HBS Substance Abuse Policies and Procedures Harvard Business School’s policy on View Details

19 Jul 2019
News

Can Germany help the U.S. lower prescription drug prices?

August 2020
Article

A History of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs in the United States: Political Appeal and Public Health Efficacy

By: A Jay Holmgren, Alyssa Botelho and Allan M Brandt

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) have become a widely embraced policy to address the US opioid crisis. Despite mixed scientific evidence on their effectiveness at improving health and reducing overdose deaths, 49 states and Washington, DC have adopted... View Details

Keywords: Health Disorders; Information Technology; Programs; Technology Adoption; History; Government and Politics; Policy; United States

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Web

2.3.1 Drug & Alcohol Policy | MBA

2.3.1 Drug & Alcohol Policy Harvard Business School’s policy on drugs and alcohol—adapted from and in accordance with other similar View Details

Article

Undermining Value-Based Purchasing — Lessons from the Pharmaceutical Industry

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Christopher Ody and Matt Schmitt

The analogy between value-based purchasing in pharmaceuticals and the new frontier of alternative payment models for health care providers is relatively straightforward. Insurers are increasingly demanding steep discounts from providers in exchange for inclusion in... View Details

Keywords: Drug Copayment Coupons; Prescription Drug Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Cost; Policy; Pharmaceutical Industry

We define a prescriptive analytics framework that addresses the needs of a constrained decision-maker facing, ex ante, unknown costs and benefits of multiple policy levers. The framework is general in nature and can be deployed in any utility maximizing... View Details

October 2024
Article

Medicare Part D Protected-Class Policy Is Associated with Lower Drug Rebates

By: Pragya Kakani, Michael Anne Kyle, Amitabh Chandra and Luca Maini

Medicare Part D does not allow plans to exclude drugs in six protected classes from their formularies, which may limit plans’ ability to negotiate rebates and lead to higher spending. We estimated the association between protected-class status, US-level estimated... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States

Article

An Exploration of Optimal Stabilization Policy

By: N. Gregory Mankiw and Matthew C. Weinzierl

This paper examines the optimal response of monetary and fiscal policy to a decline in aggregate demand. The theoretical framework is a two-period general equilibrium model in which prices are sticky in the short-run and flexible in the long-run. Policy is evaluated by... View Details

Keywords: Fiscal Policy; Monetary Policy; Economic Models; Aggregate Demand; Demand and Consumers; Money; Mathematical Methods; Taxation; Spending; Policy; Welfare; Household; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation