Focusing on business issues in health care. Written by David E. Williams of MedPharma Partners

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You gotta play to win

Posted on June 24, 2008

Aetna is sponsoring a clinical trial of a daily low-stakes lottery to see whether it helps promote adherence among coumadin patients. According to the Hartford Courant (Lottery for Pill-Takers Could Be Healthy Bet), the unusual trial design features a daily one-in-five chance to win $10 and a one-in-100 chance to win $100. The expected value is $3 per day (1/5*$10+1/100*$100=$3), which amounts to $540 over the six-month trial. (It s not clear from the article if the odds for lottery participants improve when fewer people take their meds.)It s an unsual twist on the value based insurance de...

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clinical trial