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.

Aging out of dependent coverage and the effects on the use of inpatient medical care
AbstractWe investigate the impact of losing health insurance coverage at age 26 due to aging out of the Affordable Care Act ’s dependent coverage on health insurance coverage rates and various indicators of inpatient medical care. We find that the probability of being covered under any type of health insurance plan decreases by 2.5–6.2 percentage points at age 26. However, the effects of this discrete change in healt h insurance coverage on inpatient medical care and related costs are insignificant. (Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics)
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 16, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Efficiency and profitability in US not-for-profit hospitals
This article  examines the relationship between hospital profitability and efficiency. A cross-section of 1317 U.S. metropolitan, acute care, not-for-profit hospitals for the year 2015 was employed. We use a frontier method, stochastic frontier analysis, to estimate hospital efficiency. Total margin and operati ng margin were used as profit variables in OLS regressions that were corrected for heteroskedacity. In addition to estimated efficiency, control variables for internal and external correlates of profitability were included in the regression models. We found that more efficient hospitals were also mo re profitable. ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 19, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Value of new performance information in healthcare: evidence from Japan
AbstractMandatory measurement and disclosure of outcome measures are commonly used policy tools in healthcare. The effectiveness of such disclosures relies on the extent to which the new information produced by the mandatory system is internalized by the healthcare organization and influences its operations and decision-making processes. We use panel data from the Japanese National Hospital Organization to analyze performance improvements following regulation mandating standardized measurement and peer disclosure of patient satisfaction performance. Drawing on value of information theory, we document theabsolute value and ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 17, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Patient and provider-level factors associated with changes in utilization of treatments in response to evidence on ineffectiveness or harm
In this study, we examine changes in use of two medications: fenofibrate, which was found to beineffective when used with statins among patients with Type 2 diabetes (ACCORD lipid trial); and dronedarone, which was found to beunsafe in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (PALLAS trial). We examine the patient and provider characteristics associated with a decline in use of these medications. Using Medicare fee-for-service claims from 2008 to 2013, we identified two cohorts: patients with Type 2 diabetes using statins (7 million patient-quarters), and patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (83 thousand patient-...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 29, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption
AbstractOur aim in this paper is to understand the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption. In order to do that we exploit differences in the fluctuations of business cycle conditions across regional units in Catalonia. Our findings suggest that, in general, economic fluctuations at the local level had no significant effect on the consumption of psychotropic medicines. However, we show that a deterioration in local labour market conditions is associated with a reduction in the consumption of anxiolytics medicines. We also report an increase in the consumption of anxiolyti...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - April 18, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Do the uninsured demand less care? Evidence from Maryland ’s hospitals
AbstractUninsured individuals receive fewer healthcare services for at least three reasons: responsibility for the entire bill, higher prices, and potential provider reductions for concern of nonpayment. I isolate reductions when uninsured patients are solely financially responsible by capitalizing on Maryland ’s highly regulated health care system. Prices are set by the state, are uniform across all patients, and hospitals are compensated for free care and bad debt. I use a unique feature of the data, multiple readmissions for patients who gain or lose insurance between visits, to isolate the reduction s in quantity dem...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - March 5, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Public satisfaction with health system coverage, empirical evidence from SHARE data
AbstractPeople ’s satisfaction with the health system, including the coverage provided, has been a concern for some years now but research into the main explanatory factors is in progress. This work focuses on European countries plus Israel, using the SHARE database to find what determines people’s satisfactio n with the basic coverage provided by the health system of each country. On top of the usual individual socioeconomic characteristics, other explanatory factors were also considered. These include, at individual level, trust in others, political positioning, and risk aversion; at country level, they include acces...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - February 13, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Effects of pay-for-performance on prescription of hypertension drugs among public and private primary care providers in Sweden
This study exploits policy reforms in Swedish primary care to examine the effect of pay-for-performance (P4P) on compliance with hypertension drug guidelines among public and private health care providers. Using provider-level outcome data for 2005 –2013 from the Swedish Prescription Register, providers in regions using P4P were compared to providers in other regions in a difference-in-differences analysis. The results indicate that P4P improved guideline compliance regarding prescription of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angio tensin receptor blockers. The effect was mainly driven by private providers, sug...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - January 19, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Competition and market structure in the dental industry
AbstractWe use Survey of Dental Practice data from 1983 to 2012 to examine market power of dentists and hygienists in private practice. Our findings are consistent with a dental market wherein practices use hygienist services as a “loss leader” in order to steer patients into more lucrative dental services, which exhibit the ability to markup price above marginal cost. Both dental care exhibits an elasticity of demand of roughly − 0.2, while hygienist care exhibits and elasticity of demand of nearly − 0.6. Another theme that emerged from our findings is the evidence for significant economies of scale in the den...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - January 7, 2020 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Quality information disclosure and health insurance demand: evidence from VA hospital report cards
This study examines the effect of public reporting of quality information on the demand for public insurance. In particular, we examine the effect of the introduction of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital quality report cards in 2008. Using data from the Current Population Survey in 2005 –2015, we find that new information about the quality of a VA hospital had a significant effect on VA coverage among veterans living in the same Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Despite the significant effect on VA coverage, the quality report did not have a spillover effect on veterans’ lab or supply. Moreover, updated quality informa...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - November 13, 2019 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Health expenditure, human capital, and economic growth: an empirical study of developing countries
This study provides reliable analysis and can be used by developing countries to maintain a long-term sustainable social security system. (Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics)
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - October 20, 2019 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Consolidation in the dental industry: a closer look at dental payers and providers
AbstractWe 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 concen tration data from FAIR Health®, we find a modest effect of dental insurance market concentration ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - October 2, 2019 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

The individual welfare effects of the Affordable Care Act for previously uninsured adults
AbstractThe Affordable Care Act (ACA) improved welfare by expanding, subsidizing, and standardizing healthcare coverage. At the same time, the law also penalizes the remaining uninsured and establishes a benchmark private policy that charges premiums and cost-sharing expenses in the non-group market. This paper introduces a conceptual and empirical framework for evaluating the net effects of ACA coverage expansions for the individual welfare of previously uninsured adults. Using restricted-access data from the 2010 –2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, I evaluate the short-term welfare effect as a function of health an...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 9, 2019 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Health expenditure, longevity, and child mortality: dynamic panel data approach with global data
In this study, effects of public and private health expenditures on life expectancy at birth and infant mortality are analysed on a global scale with 195 countries in the years 1995 –2014. The global data set is divided into country categories according to growth in life expectancy, decrease in infant mortality rate, and level of gross national income per capita. Some new dynamic panel model estimators, argued to be more efficient with high persistence series and predetermina tion compared to popular but complexGMM estimators, show that public health expenditures are generally more health-promoting than private expenditu...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 5, 2019 Category: Health Management Source Type: research

Health expenditure and gross domestic product: causality analysis by income level
This study examines if the direction of causality and income elasticity of health expenditure varies with income level. It uses the 1995 –2014 panel data of 161 countries divided into four income groups. Unit root, cointegration and causality tests were employed to examine the relationship between GDP and health expenditure. Impulse-response functions and forecast-error variance decomposition tests were conducted to measure the res ponsiveness of health expenditure to changes in GDP. Finally, the common correlated effects mean group method was used to examine the income elasticity of health expenditure. Findings show tha...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - July 15, 2019 Category: Health Management Source Type: research