Indiana University & NBER, United States.
Emory University & NBER, United States.
J Health Econ. 2021 May;77:102444. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102444. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
The past decade has witnessed a new wave of hospital-physician integration, with the fraction of hospitals owning any office-based physician practice increasing from 28% in 2009 to 53% in 2015 nationwide. We offer one of the first hospital-level longitudinal analyses in examining how hospital-physician integration affects hospital prices in the modern healthcare environment. We find a robust 3-5% increase in hospital prices following integration. There is little indication that hospital quality is commensurately higher or that patient mix has changed following integration. Our supplementary analyses point to stronger bargaining leverage and foreclosure of rival hospitals as potential mechanisms for the estimated price effects.
过去十年见证了医院-医生整合的新浪潮，全国范围内，拥有任何以诊所为基础的执业医生的医院比例从 2009 年的 28%增加到 2015 年的 53%。我们提供了首个在现代医疗环境下，从医院层面进行的纵向分析，以考察医院-医生整合如何影响医院价格。我们发现，整合后医院价格平均上涨了 3%至 5%。几乎没有迹象表明，整合后医院质量相应提高，或者患者构成发生了变化。我们的补充分析表明，更强的讨价还价能力和对竞争对手医院的封锁可能是造成估计价格效应的潜在机制。
