1.Which of the following tools hasnotyet been used to constrain growth in hospital costs?

A.price controls.

B.budgetary review.

C.diseconomies of scale.

D.certificate of need legislation.

E.administered prices, as in DRGs.

2.Economies of scale

Question options:

A.might be more easily realized in an emergency room rather than a cardiac surgery unit.

B.depend on the spreading of minimal fixed costs over a number of procedures.

C.depend on the spreading of high variable costs over a number of procedures.

D.depend on the spreading of high marginal costs over a number of procedures.

E.depend on the spreading of high fixed costs over a number of procedures.

3.A physician graduates from medical school and must decide whether to take a job as a junior member of a large group practice or work for an HMO directly.For the physician, a positive aspect of working for the HMO is

Question options:

A.lack of utilization controls.

B.very little peer review.

C,higher salary than with the group practice.

D.a steady stream of patients and income.

E.lower salary than with the group practice.

4.More than half of the U.S. population is covered by employer group health insurance. One of the underlying reasons is that

Question options:

A.it is both the most preferred and the most common method for part-time employees to obtain affordable coverage.

B.group coverage increases adverse selection.

C.employer payments towards health insurance premiums reduce tax benefits.

D.many of the most expensive patients are heavily subsidized or excluded.

E.covering a large group under a single contract increases transaction costs.

5.The anticipated benefits of health insurance exchanges include all of the followingexcept

Question options:

A.lower (compared to the market for individual health insurance) wait times for medical examinations.

B.simplified (compared to the market for individual health insurance) administrative procedures and lower administrative costs.

C.readily available and standardized information, allowing for easy comparison of plans.

D.better (compared to the market for individual health insurance) coverage.

E.lower (compared to the market for individual health insurance) prices.

6.A problem with Cost-Benefit Analysis is that

Question options:

A.sometimes subtle distinctions in the alternatives considered as opportunity costs may overstate the benefits of a treatment.

B.opportunity cost is measured as the value of the next best alternative foregone.

C.the perspective of the one benefitting from the medical service must be included.

D.the use of expected values employs the statistical law of large numbers and this is not acceptable for individual decision making analysis.

E.scientists observe people's behavior to calculate how much individuals are willing to pay for a particular treatment.

7.The role of the government as a provider of health care is

Question options:

A.only seen in the Medicare system in the U.S.

B.always an improvement on private provision.

C.unheard of in the U.S.

D.only seen in the Veterans Affairs health system in the U.S.

E.very common in the U.S.

8.The age-adjusted rate of hospitalization (per 10,000 person years) for chronic lung disease varies much more than the rate of hospitalization for inguinal hernia repair.A good explanation for this variation might be

Question options:

A.chronic lung disease affects more people than inguinal hernia does.

B.physicians must prefer hospitalization for inguinal hernia treatment.

C.very few alternatives except surgery and hospitalization exist for inguinal hernia repair compared with alternative treatments for chronic lung disease.

D.scientific evidence must be greater for treatment of chronic lung disease than for treatment of inguinal hernia.

E.physicians must prefer hospitalization for treatment of chronic lung disease.