A new report from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy compares the cost of receiving care at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Houston Methodist Hospital and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center using insurers’ price transparency files. The data suggests that employers can use the new information to achieve significant savings by choosing insurers that have negotiated lower prices with the major hospitals and by encouraging workers to choose lower priced hospitals within their insurance plan.
Recent data shows that substance use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana, is declining among students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) – yet there's still concern around the use of other or illicit drugs, according to a new paper from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Neal Lane, senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is available to speak on the importance of science and technology policy and research to the economic and security aspirations of the United States.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” could modestly boost GDP and investment over time, but it would seriously increase the national debt, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio from 98% to 122%, according to a new report from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Rice University is mourning the passing of E. William “Bill” Barnett ’55, an esteemed alumnus, former chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees and a transformative figure in the university’s modern history.
The Natural Disaster Resilience dashboard from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy compares combinations of demographics and disasters to show impacts over time and provides evidence that policy and regulation need to prioritize infrastructure resilience.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Rice Baker Institute of Public Policy fellow Ed Emmett discussed Houston’s challenges and opportunities to a packed house May 29 at Baker Hall on Rice’s campus.
David Satterfield, director of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, sat down with Ruth Simmons, the President’s Distinguished Fellow and former president of Brown University, Smith College and Prairie View A&M University, for a reflective conversation on the mounting pressures reshaping American higher education.
In a time of escalating climate risks, crumbling infrastructure and ballooning industrial demand, understanding how water and energy intertwine has never been more urgent. That was the resounding message from experts who convened May 19 in Washington, D.C., for “The Intersection of Water and Energy, 2025-2030,” a forum hosted by Rice and Arizona State University.
As the world races to address the climate crisis, a coalition headquartered at Rice is taking a radically collaborative approach to one of the toughest challenges: how to decarbonize industry while at the same time boosting manufacturing, improving infrastructure and securing the supply chains for the energy and materials we rely on every day.
Houston hospitals show significant pricing differences in their procedures, according to a new brief from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The research revisits the websites of the four largest Texas Medical Center (TMC) hospitals to assess whether they have followed federal hospital price transparency laws. The analysis focuses on the listed prices from Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center, Houston Methodist Hospital and Memorial Hermann-TMC.
