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 weekend effect in stroke mortality: evidence from Austrian acute care hospitals
AbstractMany studies provide evidence for the so-called weekend effect by demonstrating that patients admitted to hospital during weekends show less favourable outcomes such as increased mortality, compared with similar patients admitted during weekdays. The underlying causes for this phenomenon are still discussed controversially. We analysed factors influencing weekend effects in inpatient care for acute stroke in Austria. The study analysed secondary datasets from all 130 public acute care hospitals in Austria between 2010 and 2014 (Austrian DRG Data). The study cohort included 86,399 patient cases admitted with acute i...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - November 3, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Predicting diagnostic coding in hospitals: individual level effects of price incentives
We examined incentives present in part of the hospital funding system. First, we analyse trends in the proxy measures of diagnostic upcoding: can hospital behavioural changes be seen over time with regards to age composition, readmission rates, length of stay, comorbidity and mortality? Secondly, we examine specific patient groups to see if variations in the price incentive are related to probability of being coded as complicated. In the first years (1999–2003) there was an observed increase in the share of episodes coded as complicated, while th e level has become more stable in the years 2004–2012. The analysis showe...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - October 6, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

State minimum wages and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2008 –2018
This study examines the effect of minimum wage hikes on the shares of uninsured people during the period 2008 –2018. Despite some concern that higher minimum wages would lead to higher uninsured rates by (1) reducing employment, (2) inducing employers to stop offering health insurance to their employees, and (3) making minimum wage workers ineligible for Medicaid by increasing their earnings, the findings indicate that the uninsured rate tends to decrease with higher minimum wages, suggesting that minimum wage hikes might encourage minimum-wage workers to obtain health insurance. The effects appear to come from minimum w...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 8, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

The sensitivity of hospital coding to prices: evidence from Indonesia
This study examines a newly introduced DRG system in Indonesia. We use secondary data for 2015 and 2017 from Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), a patient level dataset for Indonesia created in 2014 to record public and private hospitals ’ claims to the national health insurance system to investigate whether there is an association between changes in tariffs paid and the severity of inpatient activity recorded in hospitals. We find a consistent small, positive and statistically significant correlation between changes in tariffs an d changes in concentration of activity, indicating discretionary but limited coding behaviour...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 7, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Racial disparities in health care utilization, the affordable care act and racial concordance preference
AbstractThe Affordable Care Act was implemented with the aim of increasing coverage and affordable access with hopes of improving health outcomes and reducing costs. Yet, disparities persist. Coverage and affordable access alone cannot explain the health care gap between racial/ethnic minorities and white patients. Instead, the focus has turned to other factors affecting utilization rates such as the patient-provider relationship. Data from nationally represented U.S. households in 2009 –2017 were used to study the association between patient-provider social distance as measured by “racial/ethnic concordance” and hea...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 24, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Does an upward intergenerational educational spillover effect exist? The effect of children ’s education on Chinese parents’ health
ConclusionsChildren ’s education can generate a significant active effect on parental health, affecting parental physical health via its effect on parental health cognition and health behaviors. Based on heterogeneity analyses, the effect of a son’s education on parental health is more significant than the effect o f a daughter’s education, and among rural children, higher education has a more significant effect on parental health. (Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics)
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 20, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Impact of implementation of the Dependency Act on the Spanish economy: an analysis after the 2008 financial crisis
AbstractThe aim of this paper is to assess the industry-wide impact of Long-Term Care (LTC) spending on the Spanish economy. LTC spending includes beneficiaries ’ copayment and the impact is quantified in terms of output, employment and value added. To this purpose, we use an input–output model of the Spanish economy that allows us to further describe how the value added generated is distributed throughout the economy according to the existing benefit-m ix (in kind services, cash benefit for informal care and cash benefit for personal assistance). Additionally, the model provides results on how the return on LTC spendi...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 4, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Willingness to give amid pandemics: a contingent valuation of anticipated nongovernmental immunization programs
AbstractGiven that altruism is crucial in assisting impoverished households to cope with health and economic crises, it is important to improve our understanding of how preferences and motives for giving differ during a pandemic. We implemented a web-based, contingent valuation survey to estimate Americans ’ willingness to give for nongovernmental immunization programs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate that the median person is willing to give a one-time donation of $26, or at least $13 when willingness-to-give estimates are corrected for uncertainty regarding future dona tions. We find that w...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - June 11, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Providers preferences towards greater patient health benefit is associated with higher quality of care
This study uses a unique dataset from rural Myanmar to assess heterogeneous preferences toward treatment efficacy relative to provider profit and the impact of these preferences on the quality of provider diagnosis and treatment. Using conjoint survey data from 187 providers, we estimated the marginal utilities of higher treatment efficacy and of higher profit, and the marginal rate of substitution between these outcomes. We also measured the quality of diagnosis and treatment for malaria among these providers using a previously validated observed patient simulation. There is substantial heterogeneity in providers ’ util...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - June 4, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Opioid and non-opioid analgesic prescribing before and after the CDC ’s 2016 opioid guideline
AbstractThe U.S. has addressed the opioid crisis using a two-front approach: state regulations limiting opioid prescriptions for acute pain patients, and voluntary federal CDC guidelines on shifting chronic pain patients to lower opioid doses and non-opioids. No opioid policy research to date has accounted for this two-pronged approach in their research design. We develop a theory of physician prescribing behavior under this two-pronged incentive structure. Using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we empirically corroborate the theory: regulations and guidelines have the intended effects of reducing opioid prescriptions...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - May 8, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

The incidence of the healthcare costs of chronic conditions
AbstractWho pays for  the costs of chronic conditions? In this paper, we examine whether 50–64-year old workers covered by employer-sponsored insurance bear healthcare costs of chronic conditions in the form of lower wages. Using a difference-in-differences approach with data from the Health and Retirement Study, we find that workers with chronic diseases receive significantly lower wages than healthy workers when they are covered by employer-sponsored insurance. Our findings suggest that higher healthcare costs of chronic conditions can explain the substantial part of the wage gap between workers with and wi thout ch...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - May 4, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Impacts of insurance expansion on health cost, health access, and health behaviors: evidence from the medicaid expansion in the US
AbstractExpansion of subsidized health insurance may result in both safer and riskier health behavior and outcomes. While having insurance lowers cost barriers to receive both usual and preventive care, the lower potential cost from adverse health events may also promote risky behavior. In this paper, I exploit expansion in the Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act to estimate the impact of insurance expansion on health outcomes and behaviors for low-income individuals in the US. I find that expansion of coverage has significantly lowered cost and increased access, particularly among minority populations, but has ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - May 2, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

An economic analysis of a wearable patient sensor for preventing hospital-acquired pressure injuries among the acutely ill patients
In conclusion, the patient-wearable sensor was found to be cost-effective in the prevention of HAPIs and cost-saving to payers and hospitals. These results suggest that patient-wearable sensors should be considered as a cost-effective alternative to st andard care in the prevention of HAPIs. (Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics)
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 9, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Non-profit hospital mergers: the effect on healthcare costs and utilization
AbstractI use a 2010 non-profit hospital merger in Ohio to study the effect of market concentration on market outcomes. Using the Synthetic Control Method and Truven MarketScan data, I document three findings. First, courts are lenient to non-profit mergers, and I cast doubt on this practice by showing that the studied merger led to a 123% increase in the payments for inpatient childbirth services. Second, I provide the first empirical evidence for the conjecture that mergers increase out-of-pocket payments and reduce the utilization of care. Last, I show that the effect of market power on market outcomes is asymmetric: th...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 5, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

The impact of the non-essential business closure policy on Covid-19 infection rates
AbstractIn response to the Covid-19 pandemic, many localities instituted non-essential business closure orders, keeping individuals categorized as essential workers at the frontlines while sending their non-essential counterparts home. We examine the extent to which being designated as an essential or non-essential worker impacts one ’s risk of being Covid-positive following the non-essential business closure order in Pennsylvania. We also assess the intrahousehold transmission risk experienced by their cohabiting family members and roommates. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we estimate that workers designat...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 1, 2021 Category: Health Management Source Type: research