Journal
JOURNAL OF HEALTH ECONOMICS
Volume 58, Issue -, Pages 110-122Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.01.004
Keywords
Hospital choice; Patient welfare; Medicare
Funding
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) [1R01HS018424-01A1]
- Fondecyt [1130011]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This paper seeks to understand the impact of the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program on hospital choice and consumer welfare for rural residents. The Flex Program created a new class of hospital, the Critical Access Hospital (CAH), which receives more generous Medicare reimbursements in return for limits on capacity and length of stay. We find that conversion to CAH status resulted in a 4.7 percent drop in inpatient admissions to participating hospitals, almost all of which was driven by factors other than capacity constraints. The Flex Program increased consumer welfare if it prevented the exit of at least 6.5 percent of randomly selected converting hospitals. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available