The changing effects of competition on non-profit and for-profit hospital pricing behavior

Has the nature of hospital competition changed from a medical arms race in which hospitals compete for patients by offering their doctors high quality services to a price war for the patients of payors? This paper uses time-series cross-sectional methods on California hospital discharge data from 19...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health economics 1999, Vol.18 (1), p.69-86
Main Authors: Keeler, Emmett B., Melnick, Glenn, Zwanziger, Jack
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquisitions & mergers
California
Catchment Area (Health) - economics
Catchment Area (Health) - statistics & numerical data
Competition
Diagnosis-Related Groups
Economic Competition - trends
Economic concentration
Health administration
Health Care Sector - statistics & numerical data
Health Care Sector - trends
Health Facility Merger - economics
Health Services Research - methods
Hospital Charges - statistics & numerical data
Hospital Charges - trends
Hospitalization - economics
Hospitals
Hospitals, Proprietary - economics
Hospitals, Public - economics
Hospitals, Voluntary - economics
Impact analysis
Medicaid
Medicare
Mergers
Non-profit
Nonprofit organizations
Ownership - economics
Pricing
Pricing policies
Profits
Quality of service
Regression Analysis
Studies
Time series
U.S.A
United States
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Summary:Has the nature of hospital competition changed from a medical arms race in which hospitals compete for patients by offering their doctors high quality services to a price war for the patients of payors? This paper uses time-series cross-sectional methods on California hospital discharge data from 1986–1994 to show the association of hospital prices with measures of market concentration changed steadily over this period, with prices now higher in less competitive areas, even for non-profit hospitals. Regression results are used to simulate the price impact of hypothetical hospital mergers.
ISSN:0167-6296
1879-1646
DOI:10.1016/S0167-6296(98)00036-8