International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

The effect of complementary private health insurance on the use of health care services
This study estimates the effect of complementary private health insurance (PHI) on the use of health care. The empirical analysis focuses on an institutional setting in which empirical findings are still limited; namely on PHI covering co-payment for treatments that are only partly financed by a universal health care system. The analysis is based on Danish data recently collected specifically for this purpose, which makes identification strategies assuming selection on observables only, and on both observables and unobservables also, both plausible and possible. We find evidence of a substantial positive and significant ef...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 30, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Willingness to pay and the sensitivity of willingness to pay for interdisciplinary musculoskeletal clinics: a contingent valuation study in Quebec, Canada
This study’s objective is to evaluate whether the population of Quebec has a quantifiable willingness to pay (WTP) to establish these clinics. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind either in the province of Quebec or else where. We selected 3822 subjects randomly within the target population using Internet surveys, telephone surveys and self-administered paper surveys as our methods of recruitment. Three payment vehicles were used and each participant was randomly allocated among these: tax, donation or lump-sum fee. A contingent valuation question using a referendum format with the option “don’t know...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 3, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

For-profit status and industry evolution in health care markets: evidence from the dialysis industry
Abstract This paper examines why for-profit dialysis providers have displaced non-profit providers over the last 25 years. Using detailed data on individual markets’ evolutions, I find that for-profit facilities were quicker to enter growing markets and slower to exit declining ones than non-profit facilities. Moreover, for-profit providers’ presence in a market had a larger impact on the exit and entry behavior of competitors. These results suggest that for-profit dialysis providers have an advantage in static competition relative to non-profit providers, and that this—rather than lower entry costs...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - July 13, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Outpatient visits after retirement in Europe and the US
Abstract I conduct an empirical analysis of the relation between retirement and outpatient care use in Europe and the US, and investigate the potential driving factors of that. I link the empirical analysis to a theoretical model of medical care demand. I document that pensioners tend to visit a doctor with higher probability and more often than the rest of the 50+ population. Ceteris paribus, being retired implies 3–10 % more outpatient visits in Europe. The estimates are of similar magnitude in the US. The paper contributes to the understanding of how population ageing plays a part in the rising heal...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - June 29, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Going beyond life expectancy in assessments of health systems ’ performance: life expectancy adjusted by perceived health status
< h3 class= " a-plus-plus " > Abstract < /h3 > < p class= " a-plus-plus " > International comparisons of health systems data have been used to guide health policy. Health systems performance is generally evaluated on how different factors contribute to mortality and longevity. Fewer studies scrutinize the factors that determine morbidity in different countries, partly because indicators that assess morbidity on a country level are not as widely available as mortality and longevity data. We introduce a new health status indicator able to combine mortality and morbidity in a single composite measure for each country and gend...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - May 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Rating the digital help: electronic medical records, software providers, and physicians
Abstract To separate the effects of physicians’ characteristics on the perceived productivity of EMRs from the effects of limitations on usability inherent in EMR design, a multivariate regression model is used to estimate the factors influencing physicians’ rankings of five attributes of their EMRs, namely; ease of use and reliability; the EMRs effect on physician and staff productivity and the EMRs performance vs. vendor’s promises. We divide the factors influencing the rankings into three groups: physician characteristics, EMR characteristics and practice characteristics (type of practice, size, ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - May 8, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Health insurance coverage and self-reported health: new estimates from the NLSY97
Abstract This paper provides new estimates of the relationship between health insurance coverage and health status of young adults using the confidential version of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort (NLSY97). Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that approximately 6 % of young adults lose their health insurance coverage once they turn 19. However, in contrast to the findings from the recent literature, the effect of this discrete change in health insurance coverage on self-reported health status of young adults is quite limited and often statistically insignificant. (Sourc...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 29, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Supplementing gatekeeping with a revenue scheme for secondary care providers
Abstract We study implications of a change in the payment scheme for radiology providers in Norway that was implemented in 2008. The change implies reduced fee-for-service and increased fixed budget for a contracted volume of services. A consequence of the change is that private providers have less incentive to conduct examinations beyond the contracted volume. Different from the situation observed before the change in 2008, the volume is no longer determined by the demand side, and a rationing of the supply occurs. We employ data on radiological examinations initiated by GPs’ referrals. We apply monthl...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 24, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Dispensing physicians, asymmetric information supplier-induced demand: evidence from the Swiss Health Survey
Abstract In this paper, we apply a two-part model to estimate the effect of health literacy on the demand for physician visits under different institutional settings. Using a constructed measure of health information, we find evidence for supplier-induced demand in some parts of Switzerland. While the level of health information is uncorrelated with the likelihood of visiting a physician (contact decision), the conditional number of visits (frequency decision) depends on the individual’s information status and the regulation of physician drug dispensing. In cantons with a drug prescription scheme, we do...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - March 11, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Reforming the Swedish pharmaceuticals market: consequences for costs per defined daily dose
Abstract In 2009 and 2010, the Swedish pharmaceuticals market was reformed. One of the stated policy goals was to achieve low costs for pharmaceutical products dispensed in Sweden. We use price and sales data for off-patent brand-name and generic pharmaceuticals to estimate a log-linear regression model, allowing us to assess how the policy changes affected the cost per defined daily dose. The estimated effect is an 18 % cost reduction per defined daily dose at the retail level and a 34 % reduction in the prices at the wholesale level (pharmacies’ purchase prices). The empirical results suggest that t...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - February 8, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Prescription drug coverage and chronic pain
In this study, I examine whether increased access to prescription drugs due to the introduction of the Medicare Part D program in 2006 led to better management of pain among the elderly. While prior work has identified increases in the utilization of analgesics due to the introduction of Medicare Part D, the extent to which this increase in drug use actually improved the well-being of older adults is not known. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I employ a difference-in-differences strategy that compares pre versus post 2006 changes in pain related outcomes between Medicare eligible persons and a younger inel...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - January 30, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

The differential effect of compensation structures on the likelihood that firms accept new patients by insurance type
Abstract Adequate access to primary care is not universally achieved in many countries, including the United States, particularly for vulnerable populations. In this paper we use multiple years of the U.S.-based Community Tracking Survey to examine whether a variety of physician compensation structures chosen by practices influence the likelihood that the practice takes new patients from a variety of different types of insurance. Specifically, we examine the roles of customer satisfaction and quality measures on the one hand, and individual physician productivity measures on the other hand, in determining...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - January 22, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Going beyond life expectancy in assessments of health systems’ performance: life expectancy adjusted by perceived health status
Abstract International comparisons of health systems data have been used to guide health policy. Health systems performance is generally evaluated on how different factors contribute to mortality and longevity. Fewer studies scrutinize the factors that determine morbidity in different countries, partly because indicators that assess morbidity on a country level are not as widely available as mortality and longevity data. We introduce a new health status indicator able to combine mortality and morbidity in a single composite measure for each country and gender at a point in time (LEAPHS), yielding the aver...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - January 19, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Exit from catastrophic health payments: a method and an application to Malawi
Abstract This paper proposes three measures of average exit time from catastrophic health payments; the first measure is non-normative in that the weights placed on catastrophic payments incurred by poor and nonpoor households are the same. It ignores the fact that the opportunity cost of health spending is different between poor and nonpoor households. The other two measures allow for distribution sensitivity but differ in their conceptualization of inequality; one is based on socioeconomic inequalities in catastrophic health payments, and the other uses pure inequalities in catastrophic health payments....
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - January 6, 2016 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Is income relevant for health expenditure and economic growth nexus?
Abstract This paper examines the relationship between health expenditure and economic growth using panel data consisting low and high-income countries. Using dynamic panel data methodology, we analyze twenty five high-income and nineteen low-income economies for the periods of 1995–2012 and 1997–2009, respectively. We find reciprocal relationship between health expenditure and economic growth in the short run and one-way causality from economic growth to public health expenditure in the long-run. In high-income countries, there is a two-way causality for both private and public health expenditures in ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - November 21, 2015 Category: Health Management Source Type: research