SUMMARY OF A WORKSHOP
Christopher Mackie, Rapporteur
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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Christopher Mackie, Rapporteur
Committee on National Statistics
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing
Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of
the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute
of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for
their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract No. DG132106CN028 between the National Acad-
emy of Sciences and the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic
Analysis. The work of the Committee on National Statistics is provided by a consortium
of federal agencies through a grant from the National Science Foundation (Number
SBR-0112521). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in
this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-12717-2
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-12717-3
Additional copies of this report are available from The National Academies Press, 500 Fifth
Street, NW, Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in
the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu.
Copyright 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2009). Strategies for a BEA Satellite
Health Care Account: Summary of a Workshop. Christopher Mackie, Rapporteur. Steering
Committee for the Workshop to Provide Guidance for Development of a Satellite Health
Care Account at the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Committee on National Statistics,
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press.
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STEERINg COMMITTEE FOR THE WORkSHOP TO PROvIDE
guIDANCE FOR DEvELOPMENT OF A SATELLITE HEALTH CARE
ACCOuNT AT THE BuREAu OF ECONOMIC ANALySIS
Joseph p. Newhouse (Chair), Division of Health Policy Research and
Education, Harvard University
BarBara FraumeNi, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern
Maine
Gail wileNsky, Project HOPE, Bethesda, Maryland
Christopher maCkie, Study Director
miChael siri, Senior Program Assistant
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COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS
2007-2008
william F. eddy (Chair), Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
kathariNe aBraham, Department of Economics and Joint Program in Survey
Methodology, University of Maryland
william dumouChel, Lincoln Technologies, Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts
JohN haltiwaNGer, Department of Economics, University of Maryland
V. Joseph hotz, Department of Economics, Duke University
kareN kaFadar, Department of Statistics, Indiana University
douGlas massey, Department of Sociology, Princeton University
sally mortoN, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
ViJay Nair, Department of Statistics and Department of Industrial and
Operations Engineering, University of Michigan
Joseph p. Newhouse, Division of Health Policy Research and Education,
Harvard University
samuel h. prestoN, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania
keNNeth prewitt, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia
University
louise ryaN, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University
roGer touraNGeau, Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of
Maryland, and Survey Research Center, University of Michigan
alaN zaslaVsky, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard University
Medical School
CoNstaNCe F. Citro, Director
i
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Preface
The workshop summarized in this report was convened by the Committee
on National Statistics (CNSTAT) on behalf of the Bureau of Economic Analysis
(BEA) to advance their plans to produce a satellite health care account designed
to improve measurement of activity in the health and medical care sectors of the
economy. The purpose of this workshop was to elicit expert guidance on strate-
gies for better coordinating health expenditure statistics, developing medical care
price measures, and producing comprehensive sets of accounts for health care
sector income, expenditure, and product organized by type of disease that are
more directly useful for measuring health care inputs, outputs, and productivity.
Such data are central to tracking the share of the country’s resources devoted to
medical care, how rapidly that share is increasing, and, most importantly, what
the country is getting from this increased spending on medical care.
The workshop consisted of sessions covering the following topics: (1) plans
for a satellite health care account, for which Ana Aizcorbe of BEA presented the
goals of the agency’s health accounting program and progress to date on the proj-
ect; (2) the Altarum Institute’s construction of nominal expenditures by disease,
for which Charles Roehrig presented research findings; (3) price indexes and
volume measures, for which Ralph Bradley and Bonnie Murphy of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics discussed new work on health care indexes in the Consumer Price
Index and Producer Price Index programs; (4) measuring treatment outcomes, for
which Mark McClellan of the Brookings Institution discussed the challenges of
constructing measures of treatment outcomes, essential for monitoring the qual-
ity of medical care; and (5) national accounting issues, for which Brian Moyer
of BEA provided details about BEA’s plan to modify the industry side of the
ii
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iii PrEfACE
national accounts so that they can remain synchronized with the disease-based
organizational structure proposed for the satellite program.
On behalf of CNSTAT, I thank all of the workshop presenters for prepar-
ing detailed presentations and background papers, which provided the basis for
engaging and productive discussion. I also thank the workshop participants for
their insightful comments and fruitful exchange of ideas, as well as for their input
as staff drafted this report. I especially wish to thank my colleagues on the work-
shop steering committee, Barbara Fraumeni and Gail Wilensky, for their helpful
guidance and leadership in planning and moderating the workshop.
We are grateful for BEA’s sponsorship of the workshop and thank Dennis
Fixler, Steven Landefeld, and, in particular, Ana Aizcorbe for offering guidance
to staff and the workshop steering committee in the development of the agenda
and in identifying the workshop goals. David Cutler, Dennis Fryback, Alan
Garber, Emmett Keeler, Allison Rosen, and Jack Triplett, serving on CNSTAT’s
Committee on National Health Accounts, which is working on another closely
related project funded by the National Institute on Aging, provided input to the
workshop planning as well.
Michael Siri of the CNSTAT staff expertly managed the administrative details
and workshop arrangements and worked on the report itself. Connie Citro, direc-
tor of CNSTAT, provided guidance and support throughout the project. Kirsten
Sampson Snyder guided this report through the review process. Most importantly,
Christopher Mackie, the staff study director for the workshop, took the lead in
planning the workshop and prepared and revised the report on the basis of com-
ments from reviewers and workshop participants.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their
diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures
approved by the Report Review Committee of the National Research Council.
The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical com-
ments that assist the institution in making its report as sound as possible, and to
ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and
responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript
remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
The panel thanks the following individuals for their review of this report:
Jessica Banthin, Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality; Barbara M. Fraumeni, Muskie School of Public
Service, University of Southern Maine, Portland; Dale W. Jorgenson, Depart-
ment of Economics, Harvard University; and Matthew D. Shapiro, Department
of Economics, University of Michigan. Although the reviewers have provided
many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse
the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the
report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Katharine
G. Abraham, Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University of Maryland.
Appointed by the National Research Council, she was responsible for making
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ix
PrEfACE
certain that the independent examination of this report was carried out in accor-
dance with institutional procedures and that all review comments (including her
own) were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of the report
rests entirely with the institution.
Joseph P. Newhouse, Chair
Steering Committee for the Workshop to Provide
Guidance for Development of a Satellite Health
Care Account at the Bureau of Economic Analysis
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Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Project Description and Report Structure, 1
1.2. What Kind of “Satellite” Health Care Account?, 4
1.3. Objectives of the BEA Project—A Staged Strategy for Developing a
National Health Care Account, 7
2 ALLOCATING NOMINAL EXPENDITURES ON MEDICAL CARE:
A DISEASE-BASED CONCEPTUAL APPROACH 12
2.1. Methods for Attributing Spending to Treatments: The Big
Comorbidity Issue, 13
2.2. Allocating Personal Health Expenditures by Medical Condition:
The Altarum Institute Project, 18
2.3. Comparing the Methods, 22
2.4. Data Needs for Expenditure Accounting, 25
3 PRICE INDEXES: CALCULATING REAL MEDICAL CARE GDP 30
3.1. Pricing Treatments to Capture Changing Technologies, Input
Substitution, and Population Heterogeneity, 32
3.2. BEA’s Strategy for Coordinating the Industry Input Accounts with the
Disease Treatment–Based Expenditure Concept, 35
3.3. Tracking Quality Change of Medical Goods and Services, 41
3.4. The Role of the BLS Price Indexes, 44
3.5. Outcomes and Quality Change, 56
3.6. Data Needs for Price Measurement, Tracking Outcomes, and Quality
Adjustment, 60
xi
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xii CONTENTS
4 SUMMARY, PERSPECTIVE, AND PROSPECTS FOR MOVING
FORWARD 63
REFERENCES 66
APPENDIXES
A Summary Statistics from the Medical CPI and U.S. Medical Expenditures
Panel Survey 67
B Workshop Agenda and Participants 84
C Adapting BEA’s National and Industry Accounts for a Health Care
Satellite Account 88
Brent r. Moulton, Brian C. Moyer, and Ana Aizcorbe