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Hopewell Economics research project wins gold ribbon award

Hopewell Economics has been honored as part of a team that received a gold ribbon for a research poster presented at the Association of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) in Houston. There were more than 350 entries in the poster contest. Fewer than 10 percent received an award.

Titled: Claims database analysis of health care resource utilization and associated medical costs in patients with Barth syndrome in the United States the research project examined patient demographics and costs for the extremely rare Barth Syndrome.

ACMP poster Barth Syndrome affects males who often fail to thrive as children and face numerous healthcare challenges as they age. Few make it past age 40. Because it is so rare, there has been little previous research into the disease costs and treatments.

Working from several data sources, Hopewell Economics was able to constructed a better profile of patients and the numerous challenges and their medical needs. The economics research will help researchers and physicians in better identifying Barth Syndrome patients and understanding the likely disease progression.

The research was also published in a supplement to JCMP, the Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy.

The project was conducted along with UT Health Houston, McGovern Medical School; Barth Syndrome Foundation; Akron Children’s Hospital NeuroDevelopmental Science Center; and Hopewell Economics LLC

AMCP 2025 is anticipated to attract more than 4,000 managed care decision-makers to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX, from March 31-April 3.

2024 review and successes

As 2025 gets under way, it might be a good time to highlight some of our 2024 success stories.

These will be somewhat generic explanations as nearly all of these are covered with Non-Disclosure Agreements.

- We provided cost analytics that along with clinical explanations enabled Medicare to make changes to certain payment policies. As the result, more patients potentially will have access to life-savings treatments.
- We worked with another company to help them better understand patient demographics and economics for a rare disease. This work helps paint a broader understanding of treatment options and disease progression. Not only did the research result in a poster for a major conference, the poster won an award for presentation.
- We helped another company verify and understand mortality and economic costs of certain types as gastrointestinal surgeries. This economics understanding should go a long ways toward helping patient outcomes as well as controlling hospital costs.
- We helped a number of early stage start-up companies better understand the economics of their new devices or treatments. We were able to assist them in better understanding their pathway to patient care and marketplace acceptance.

A best seller: Medicare & You

Medicare & You book — Medicare’s 2025 handbook.

It’s a book few healthcare analysts see unless they are Medicare eligible. Each year, generally in late September or early October, Medicare publishes “Medicare & You” a handbook to help beneficiaries navigate their Medicare coverage.

Given the complexities, it’s a surprisingly well done publication with generally easy to understand, clear explanations. When the material becomes too involved, Medicare often includes pointers to where more information can be found. Continue reading “A best seller: Medicare & You”

What does “cost” mean?

The concept of “cost” seems easy enough. Few things in healthcare are ever simple, and cost is one of those. In a hospital setting, there are at least three different ways to define “cost”:

For the hospital, it is the cost of providing the service. This usually includes operational cost as well as allocated overhead and capital costs.
For a payer, it often is the amount of the reimbursement or the payment to the hospital.
For a patient, “cost” might be the hospital’s billed charge amount after any discounts.

In The Princess Bride Inigo Montoya says, “You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Each version of “cost” will produce different amounts for any given service. If a research paper or publication does not define “cost” or how it is calculated be wary. What you think the metric means might not be what you think.

Meaningless statistics

Read enough research papers and sooner or later you’ll come across some astounding, and meaningless, statistics.

Consider this one: “Approximately 75% of the admissions occurred during weekdays…”

Well, duh. Five divided by seven = 71.4%.

Not a remarkable observation at all. It’s likely there is some variance by day of the week. That might have been a more enlightening statistic.