|
Site Content
Home
Research Services
Areas of Expertise
Experience
Our Approach to Research
When to Invest in Program Evaluation
Employment
Contact Us
|
|
Research Services
AndoverEcon provides
research and consulting services to meet the needs of the health care
industry, insurers, employers, public policy makers, and investment analysts. Our teams
of experienced professionals have the experience and insight
needed to solve tough, tricky, messy,
hard-to-get-a-handle-on evaluation problems. We have the tools needed to help healthcare
decision makers develop cost-effective strategies and assess the value of healthcare investment opportunities.
Our research services show the value of healthcare programs and help
managed care leaders assess the cost-effectiveness of new program
elements. While each project is designed to address customer needs
within a specific situation, our services generally fall into the
following areas:
- Program Evaluation to measure the effects of a new or pilot
program or to test new financing or care management features in an
existing program.
- Economic Analysis to prospectively assess investment opportunities, new markets, new services, or new payment methods, or
to examine the implications of strategic decisions.
- Research
Support to provide research units in healthcare
organizations with the supplemental expertise needed to design and
conduct effective research studies.
Program Evaluation
A central focus of our work at AndoverEcon is program
evaluation. We offer the full range of program evaluation services
to assess the effects of new health care
programs.
- Research design.
We ensure that studies address the most important issues in
a rigorous and cost-effective way.
- Survey design.
We develop sample design and survey instruments to meet project
needs.
- Data collection. We arrange for and oversee surveys and
limited medical records abstracting as part of larger research
studies. However, we do not accept projects that are primarily data
collection efforts.
- Outcomes measurement.
We develop measurement tools and systems, to obtain
quantitative measures of outcomes for one-time studies or on-going
monitoring of programs and providers.
- Medical claims analysis. We excel in analysis of large medical
claims data bases to study costs and outcomes in large
populations. Our partner data firm is prepared to convert
large medical claims data sets to research files for our
analysis.
- Econometric analysis. We use basic and advanced methods to measure the effects of programs
controlling for the numerous factors that can affect service use,
cost, and medical outcomes.
- Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. We carry economic evaluations
through to completion to assess the value of health care programs
from multiple perspectives.
We take pride in ensuring that our research is important, clear, and
usable. We help clients see the implications of our results and help
them develop plans to implement our recommendations.
Economic Analysis
Strategic decisions on new services, products, markets, and care
management methods must often be made despite limited direct evidence of
program effects or studies of comparable programs in similar
situations. Well constructed economic models can provide a useful means of prospectively assessing
the effects of new programs prior to their implementation.
When such models are grounded in a review of the literature and analysis
of existing data, they provide the best available quantitative estimates
of likely effects in a variety of circumstances.
We have experience employing economic analysis methods in healthcare
applications that include:
- market analysis of supply and demand for health care services
and factors affecting prices in local and national markets.
- prospectively assessing the cost-saving potential of new health care programs and new care
management products and services
- assessing the economic incentives in
risk-sharing contracts and performance-based provider payment
arrangements
- predictive modeling to predict outcomes such as costs, risk of hospital or nursing home admission, or disability.
- economic analysis to identify the most
promising types of markets for new managed care products
- investment analysis to assess the value of equity
investments in publicly or privately traded health sector securities.
Research Support
Our research support services are available to organizations looking to
add an economic component to clinical studies or get an important health
services research project project up and running quickly. We can
assist with research design, econometric analysis, analysis of medical
claims data, and assessment of market-level issues. We can help implement
advanced analytic methods such as case-mix adjustment and selection bias
corrections.
While our other services are usually organized on a project basis, our
research support services can be provided on a flexible as-needed consulting
basis.
|
|
Chronic Care Costs of New Medicare HMO Enrollees
AndoverEcon recently completed a report on the costs of new Medicare HMO enrollees.
|
