The supplement ones

I wonder if your utilization gap estimates are too low. You calibrate from within-payernprice changes. If across payer price differences matter then the the margin of not accepting the payer does too. As @gottliebecon.bsky.social et al show (in their denials paper) that margin is elastic to payment!

Great paper, Aaron—and here’s my highest praise: you guys implemented literally all of the kneejerk R2 comments that came up when I read the first page :)

@reedabelson.bsky.social @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social I am not saying you should write celebratory articles about PA (you shouldn’t) but I do not understand why docs cannot, will not be treated as the interest group they are rather than benevolent experts.

Also, “I think it’s the back door into privatizing traditional Medicare.” The privatization of Medicare is not exactly happening through the back door…

Look, you absolutely do not have to hand it to the administration, but TM has already experimented with prior auth (www.nber.org/papers/w29491). It is good to not let docs use Medicare as a piggy bank! Don’t be scared of buzzwords!

I get the hand-wringing about the AI of it all but the concern about prior auth for years is the slowness of human review. Many PA rejections are procedural, why not speed them up tremendously? (I do think limiting the “black box” nature of algorithmic denial here is very important though)

Just kidding, but only barely! A really disappointing and poorly-framed article that, as always, relies on doctors as “experts” on how they get paid. Yes, doctors don’t like it when you regulate their activities. But federal funds need an advocate and defender too.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/h...

de gustibus EST disputandum

Pretty sure I learned how to do it from the appendix of Chandra-Finkelstein-Sacarny-Syverson AER 2016.

So on the margin, there’s a small chance that a faculty member might see these posts, become aware of a candidate, and ask for the committee to consider them.

I don’t know how other departments work. But in our group, the interviews/flyouts are chosen by a small committee. That means there are a bunch of faculty who aren’t reading packets. If I saw a good health candidate I might take action bc otherwise the committee might not care.

Reining in costs is hard. But (paraphrasing my coauthor Boris) in a world with finite resources where providers have no qualms about prescribing low-value care, policies that discipline the use of care may be necessary.