Health care utilization: Supplier induction and economic cost containment

TY - CONF

T1 - Health care utilization

T2 - The Association for Public Policy and Management Conference

AU - Jacobsen, Christian Bøtcher

AU - Andersen, Lotte Bøgh

AU - Serritzlew, Søren

PY - 2011/11/3

Y1 - 2011/11/3

N2 - An important task in governing health services is to control costs. The literatures on both costcontainment and supplier induced demand focus on the effects of economic incentives on health care costs, but insights from these literatures have never been integrated. This paper asks how economic cost containment measures affect the utilization of health services, and how these measures interact with the number of patients per provider. Based on very valid register data, this is investigated for 9.556 Danish physiotherapists between 2001 and 2008. We find that higher (relative) fees for a given service make health professionals provide more of this service to each patient, but that lower user payment (unexpectedly) does not necessarily mean higher total cost or astronger association between the number of patients per supplier and the health care utilization. This implies that incentives are important, but that economics cannot alone explain the differences in health care utilization.

AB - An important task in governing health services is to control costs. The literatures on both costcontainment and supplier induced demand focus on the effects of economic incentives on health care costs, but insights from these literatures have never been integrated. This paper asks how economic cost containment measures affect the utilization of health services, and how these measures interact with the number of patients per provider. Based on very valid register data, this is investigated for 9.556 Danish physiotherapists between 2001 and 2008. We find that higher (relative) fees for a given service make health professionals provide more of this service to each patient, but that lower user payment (unexpectedly) does not necessarily mean higher total cost or astronger association between the number of patients per supplier and the health care utilization. This implies that incentives are important, but that economics cannot alone explain the differences in health care utilization.

KW - Health care services

KW - Health care costs

KW - Supplier inducement

KW - Cost containment

KW - Physiotherapy

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 3 November 2011 through 5 November 2011

ER -