Shock, but no shift: Hospitals' responses to changes in patient insurance mix

Medicaid reimburses healthcare providers for services at a lower rate than any other type of insurance coverage. To account for the burden of treating Medicaid patients, providers claim that they must cost-shift by raising the rates of individuals covered by private insurance. Previous investigation...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health economics 2016-09, Vol.49, p.46-58
Main Author: Wagner, Kathryn L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cost shifting
Coverage
Disability
Economics, Hospital
Fees and Charges
Government programs
Health administration
Health care
Health insurance
Hospital Charges
Hospitals
Humans
Insurance
Insurance Coverage
Insurance, Health
Medicaid
Medicare
Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act 2010-US
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Patients
Studies
United States
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Medicaid reimburses healthcare providers for services at a lower rate than any other type of insurance coverage. To account for the burden of treating Medicaid patients, providers claim that they must cost-shift by raising the rates of individuals covered by private insurance. Previous investigations of cost-shifting has produced mixed results. In this paper, I exploit a disabled Medicaid expansion where crowd-out was complete to investigate cost-shifting. I find that hospitals reduce the charge rates of the privately insured. Given that Medicaid is expanding in several states under the Affordable Care Act, these results may alleviate cost-shifting concerns of the reform.
ISSN:0167-6296
1879-1646
DOI:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.06.008