Background: Risk attitudes influence decisions made under uncertainty. This paper investigates the association of risk attitudes with the utilization of preventive and general healthcare services, work absence and resulting costs to explore their contribution to the heterogeneity in utilization....

The Risk Adjustment Reform Act of 2001 mandates that a health-status-based risk adjustment mechanism has to be implemented in Germany's Statutory Health Insurance system by January 1, 2007. German parliament decided this as with the existing demographic risk adjustment model, that means there is...

Background: By performing case management, general practitioners and health care assistants can provide additional benefits to their chronically ill patients. However, the economic effects of such case management interventions often remain unclear although how to manage the burden of chronic...

Surgical measures to combat obesity are very effective in terms of weight loss, recovery from diabetes, and improvement in cardiovascular risk factors. However, previous studies found both positive and negative results regarding the effect of bariatric surgery on health care utilization. Using...

Objective: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) carries increased risk of mortality and excess costs. Disease Management Programs (DMPs) providing guideline-recommended care for chronic diseases seem an intuitively appealing way to enhance health outcomes for patients with chronic conditions such...

Von der demographischen Entwicklung wird allgemein eine Zunahme der Zahl Pflegebedürftiger erwartet. Um die mögliche Dynamik in diesem Bereich aufzuzeigen, wird mit Hilfe des DIW-Bevölkerungsmodells, das u.a. die weiterhin steigende Lebenserwartung modelliert, die Zahl der Pflegefälle...

Gesundheitsökonomen nehmen Stellung zu den „Eckpunkten zu einer Gesundheitsreform“ der Koalitionsparteien vom 4. Juli 2006.

Background: There is an evidence gap on whether the choice of specialty care beneficially affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study analyzes how newly initiated pulmonologist care affects the generic and...