Consolidation in the dental industry: a closer look at dental payers and providers

International Journal of Health Economics and Management pp 1 –18 |Cite asResearch articleFirst Online:03 October 2019AbstractWe examine the effect of commercial dental insurance concentration on the size of dental practices, the decision of dentists to own a practice, and the choice of dentists to work at a dental management service organization —a type of corporate group practice that has become more prevalent in the United States in recent years. Using 2013–2015 dentist-level data from the American Dental Association, county-level data on firms and employment from the United States Census, and commercial dental insurance market co ncentration data from FAIR Health®, we find a modest effect of dental insurance market concentration on the size of dental practices. We also find that a higher level of commercial dental insurance market concentration is associated with a dentist ’s decision not to own a practice. There is inconclusive evidence that higher levels of dental insurance market concentration impact a dentist’s decision to affiliate with a dental management service organization. Overall, our findings imply that dentists consolidate in response to increases in concentration among commercial dental insurers.

Source: Dental Technology Blog - October 18, 2019 Category: Dentistry Source Type: news