USC Schaeffer Institute

As retail pharmacies struggle, there may be more closures in areas that need them most and a greater shift to services like online prescribing and at-home testing, Schaeffer Scholar Dima Mazen Qato predicts. That raises big questions about which consumers may lack access, she told MarketWatch. "I think they're going to be higher-cost, more convenient [and] tailored to a specific segment of the population that has more discretionary income or has private insurance," she said. Read here: https://lnkd.in/gzdRHkAZ #pharmacy #healthcareaccess

We’re now on Bluesky! ?? Follow us @schaeffer?usc?edu for the latest research and evidence-based insights on health policy, economics and behavioral science. https://lnkd.in/eQ9devDy #HealthPolicy #Bluesky #USC

Doctors are already using ChatGPT and other large language models to guide clinical decision-making — without any FDA oversight to ensure their safety and effectiveness. Even when #LLMs are instructed to avoid making clinical recommendations, they can still be manipulated into providing treatment advice, finds new research from Schaeffer Scholar Genevieve Kanter, Gary Weissman and Toni Mankowitz. In some circumstances, these #AI tools need to be regulated as medical devices, the researchers argue in npj Digital?Medicine. Read here:?https://lnkd.in/eC29i2GB USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Air ambulance firms won 86% of disputes with insurers under the No Surprises Act's arbitration system in 2023, finds new #USCSchaeffer research that provides the first in-depth look at air ambulance cases. The study from Erin L. Duffy also finds private equity-backed firms were involved in 3/5 disputes, and they received higher amounts than non-PE providers. But due to limitations in CMS data, it was only possible to assess financial outcomes in less than half of air ambulance disputes – a far lower rate than for other services involved in IDR cases. Researchers suggest several ways that CMS could make more complete data on air ambulances available. The JAMA Network Open study: https://lnkd.in/gzAHQ3QQ All Schaeffer research on #SurpriseBilling: https://lnkd.in/gazPGSF3 USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

New research from Schaeffer Scholar Mireille Jacobson provides the first nationwide look at who knows about, carries and has used naloxone — the life-saving #opioid overdose reversal drug that has been available over the counter since 2023. The lack of reliable data on knowledge and use of naloxone has hindered research on how to best prevent overdose deaths. "To know where to put our resources, we need to know about the actual ways this medication gets to the people who will use it," says Jacobson, who's also a professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Read more on the study: https://lnkd.in/gFyBwCxU USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

If Medicare Advantage plans covered out-of-network care similarly as in-network care, more enrollees would likely use it, suggests recent Schaeffer Center research from Grace McCormack and Erin Trish. They examined private Medicare Cost Plans, in which out-of-network care is covered through traditional Medicare. They found these enrollees broadly used out-of-network care, suggesting that Medicare Advantage plans with narrow provider networks meaningfully change the way beneficiaries use care. Read more about their research on The Commonwealth Fund blog: https://lnkd.in/dJQsBcqh USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences #Medicare #MedicareAdvantage

There is potentially a “real benefit” to moving more supply of essential drugs to the U.S., but an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods is unlikely to have a major impact on its own, says Schaeffer Sr. Scholar Geoffrey Joyce. To boost domestic production, he suggests the U.S. government could use other strategies, such as tax incentives for production of certain medicines and supplies, as well as floor prices on low-margin generics to ensure prices don’t fall so low that there's little incentive to manufacture them. “We should be thinking more strategically about whether we should have all of our antibiotic production overseas and should we have at least the capability to ramp up production of essential meds in the short term," Joyce tells U.S. News & World Report. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dRJrm3CR USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 was so immense that Social Security experienced a net increase of $205 billion due to retirement payments that won't be made, finds new #USCSchaeffer research. Read more in Marketplace by APM: https://lnkd.in/gNd4cHC9 The original research in NBER: https://lnkd.in/efJvyGRW USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

???The USC Schaeffer Center is hiring! We have an opening for a senior SAS Research Programmer to provide programming support on research projects examining health behavior research and related health policy topics. This role involves developing plans to adapt complex, large-scale data for research, contributing to study design and publications, overseeing analytical work for project staff and students, and managing large healthcare data files. We’re looking for a skilled SAS programmer with experience in health data, including large administrative healthcare claims, who has led programming or served as a technical specialist on research projects. If that’s you, apply today! Learn more and apply here:?https://lnkd.in/gqK-Ux8t USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences #Hiring #JobOpening #HealthcareData #DataScienceJobs #SASJobs #USC

Does lowering drug prices harm future innovation? A new Schaeffer Center white paper finds for every 10% reduction in expected U.S. revenues, pharmaceutical innovation—such as clinical trial starts or new drug approvals—is expected to ultimately fall by 2.5% to 15%. Even at the lower end, innovation impacts can be quite significant. “It’s firmly established that companies cut back on research when pharmaceutical revenues fall,” says Schaeffer Center Co-Director?Dana P Goldman. "The challenge is to determine what this means future population health. Given the contributions of drugs to better health—GLP-1s are a notable example—this suggests we should be cautious in our demands for lower prices.” Read here: https://lnkd.in/gyu7ZpK5 USC Sol Price School of Public Policy USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences #DrugPrices #PrescriptionDrugs #Innovation