title: The effect of narrow provider networks on health care use.
abstract: Network design is an often overlooked aspect of health insurance contracts. Recent policy factors have resulted in narrower provider networks. We provide plausibly causal evidence on the effect of narrow network plans offered by a large national health insurance carrier in a major metropolitan market. Our econometric design exploits the fact that some firms offer a narrow network plan to their employees and some do not. Our results show that narrow network health plans lead to reductions in health care utilization and spending. We find evidence that narrow networks save money by selecting lower cost providers into the network.
authors.affiliation: Economics Department, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 South Morgan Street, 725 University Hall (MC 144), Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Atwood
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. Electronic address: losasso@uic.edu.
authors.forename: Anthony T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Lo Sasso
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D009313:National Health Programs; D014481:United States
keywords: Benefit design; Health insurance; Narrow networks; Selective contracting; Small group market