Inter-regional competition and quality in hospital care

This study analyzes the effect of episode-of-care payment and patient choice on waiting time and the comprehensive quality of hospital care. The study assumes that two hospitals are located in two cities with different population sizes and compete with each other. We find that the comprehensive qual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European journal of health economics 2013-06, Vol.14 (3), p.515-526
Main Author: Aiura, Hiroshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cities
Competition
Economic competition
Economic Competition - statistics & numerical data
Economic models
Economic Policy
Economic theory
Economies of scale
Episodes of care
Equilibrium
Health care delivery
Health care expenditures
Health Care Management
Health care payments
Health care waiting times
Health Economics
Hospital Administration - economics
Hospital costs
Hospital units
Hospitalization
Hospitals
Humans
Insurance, Health, Reimbursement - statistics & numerical data
Medical technology
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Models, Economic
Original Paper
Patients
Payments
Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes
Population
Population number
Public Finance
Public Health
Quality of care
Quality of Health Care - economics
Regions
Skills
Studies
Total costs
Waiting Lists
Waiting period
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Description
Summary:This study analyzes the effect of episode-of-care payment and patient choice on waiting time and the comprehensive quality of hospital care. The study assumes that two hospitals are located in two cities with different population sizes and compete with each other. We find that the comprehensive quality of hospital care as well as waiting time of both hospitals improve with an increase in payment per episode of care. However, we also find that the extent of these improvements differs according to the population size of the cities where the hospitals are located. Under the realistic assumptions that hospitals involve significant labor-intensive work, we find the improvements in comprehensive quality and waiting time in a hospital located in a small city to be greater than those in a hospital located in a large city. The result implies that regional disparity in the quality of hospital care decreases with an increase in payment per episode of care.
ISSN:1618-7598
1618-7601
DOI:10.1007/s10198-012-0396-5