In March 2008, the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies held a workshop to assist the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) with next steps as it develops plans to produce a satellite health care account. This account, designed to improve its measurement of economic activity in the medical care sector, will benefit health care policy.

The purpose of the workshop, summarized in this volume, was to elicit expert guidance on strategies to implement the objectives of the BEA program. The ultimate objectives of the program are to:

• compile medical care spending information by type of disease-a system more directly useful for measuring health care inputs, outputs, and productivity than current estimates of spending by type of provider;
• produce a comprehensive set of accounts for health care-sector income, expenditure, and product;
• develop medical care price and real output measures that will help analysts to break out changes in the delivery of health care from changes in the prices of that care;
• and coordinate BEA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) health expenditure statistics.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• 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 2007-2008
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND REPORT STRUCTURE
  • 1.2. WHAT KIND OF “SATELLITE” HEALTH CARE ACCOUNT?
  • A Broad Population Health Account
  • The BEA Medical Care Account: Experimental Work to Improve the Market-Oriented NIPAs
  • 1.3. OBJECTIVES OF THE BEA PROJECT—A STAGED STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING A NATIONAL HEALTH CARE ACCOUNT
• 2. Allocating Nominal Expenditures on Medical Care: A Disease-Based Conceptual Approach
  • 2.1. METHODS FOR ATTRIBUTING SPENDING TO TREATMENTS: THE BIG COMORBIDITY ISSUE
  • 2.2. ALLOCATING PERSONAL HEALTH EXPENDITURES BY MEDICAL CONDITION: THE ALTARUM INSTITUTE PROJECT
  • 2.3. COMPARING THE METHODS
  • 2.4. DATA NEEDS FOR EXPENDITURE ACCOUNTING
• 3. Price Indexes: Calculating Real Medical Care GDP
  • 3.1. PRICING TREATMENTS TO CAPTURE CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES, INPUT SUBSTITUTION, AND POPULATION HETEROGENEITY
  • 3.2. BEA’S STRATEGY FOR COORDINATING THE INDUSTRY INPUT ACCOUNTS WITH THE DISEASE TREATMENT–BASED EXPENDITURE CONCEPT
  • 3.3. TRACKING QUALITY CHANGE OF MEDICAL GOODS AND SERVICES
  • 3.4. THE ROLE OF THE BLS PRICE INDEXES
  • 3.5. OUTCOMES AND QUALITY CHANGE
  • 3.6. DATA NEEDS FOR PRICE MEASUREMENT, TRACKING OUTCOMES, AND QUALITY ADJUSTMENT
• 4. Summary, Perspective, and Prospects for Moving Forward
• References
• Appendix A Summary Statistics from the Medical CPI and U.S. Medical Expenditures Panel Survey
• Appendix B Workshop Agenda and Participants
• Appendix C Adapting BEA’s National and Industry Accounts for a Health Care Satellite Account
• COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS

Rapporteur: Christopher Mackie.

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.

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 Academy 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.