Scientific Definition
Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.
Plain-English Definition
Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.
Feynman Explanation
A cure is a one-time revenue event. A treatment is an annuity.
Core Principle
Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Innovation portfolios shaped by IP economics, not by patient need.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
A cure is a one-time revenue event. A treatment is an annuity.
Examples
- More R&D on chronic management than on disease elimination.
- Innovation portfolios shaped by IP economics, not by patient need.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Public-private hybrid funding for under-incentivized disease classes.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Public-private hybrid funding for under-incentivized disease classes.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Productivity targets compress visits, raising misdiagnosis and burnout.
A federal mandate intended to lower drug costs for the poor became a profit engine for hospitals and contract pharmacies.
Liability exposure pushes clinicians to order tests for legal protection rather than clinical need.
Federal reimbursement rules incentivize cycling seniors through hospitalizations to upgrade billing categories.
Paying providers per procedure rewards more procedures, not better outcomes.
Systems paid per filled bed have weak incentives to invest in prevention or community health.
Opaque billing rules create lucrative work for administrators and revenue-cycle firms instead of care.
Insurers profit when claims are denied, delayed, or abandoned.
Hospital group-purchasing and opaque contracting inflate device costs far above marginal cost.
Sales bonuses and prescriber relationships fueled mass over-prescription and an addiction crisis.
Federal incentives meant for neglected diseases get used to privatize widely available medicines.
Specialists earn more for procedures than primary care for prevention.