14.8. Switching from one anesthesia drug to another reduces costs by $100 per patient. What additional information do you need to do a cost-minimization analysis?

14.9. A vaccine costs $200 per patient. Administration of the vaccine to 1,000 people is expected to increase the number of pain-free days for this population from 360,000 to 362,000. Calculate the cost per additional pain-free day due to vaccination. Is vaccination a good investment?

14.10. An acute care hospital has found that having geriatric nurse specialists take charge of discharge planning for stroke patients reduces length of stay from 5.4 days to 5.2 days. On average the geriatric nurse specialist (who earns $27 per hour including fringe benefits) spends 3.3 hours on discharge planning per patient. Supply and telephone costs are less than $10 per discharge plan. Your accounting staff tell you that the average cost per day is $860 and the incremental cost per day is about $340. Is this innovation financially attractive? Whether it is or not, what alternatives should the hospital consider?

Chapter 15:

15.1 What does it mean to have market power? Are firms with market power extremely profitable?

15.2 Why would a merger reduce costs? Why would a merger increase markups? Why do many mergers fail nonetheless?

15.3. What information would you like to have when planning advertising spending?

15.4 Why might banning advertising drive up prices?