title: The Effectiveness of Health Screening.
abstract: Using a matched insurant-general practitioner panel data set, we estimate the effect of a general health-screening program on individuals' health status and health-care cost. To account for selection into treatment, we use regional variation in the intensity of exposure to supply-determined screening recommendations as an instrumental variable. We find that screening participation increases inpatient and outpatient health-care costs up to 2 years after treatment substantially. In the medium run, we find cost savings in the outpatient sector, whereas in the long run, no statistically significant effects of screening on either health-care cost component can be discerned. In sum, screening participation increases health-care cost. Given that we do not find any statistically significant effect of screening participation on insurants' health status (at any point in time), we do not recommend a general health-screening program. However, given that we find some evidence for cost-saving potential for the sub-sample of younger insurants, we suggest more targeted screening programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hackl
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria.|IZA, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Halla
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hummer
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria.
authors.forename: Gerald J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Pruckner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007345:Insurance Claim Review / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D010045:Outpatients; D013222:State Medicine
keywords: health screening; health-care cost; mortality; sick leave