title: Health Care Exceptionalism? Performance and Allocation in the US Health Care Sector.
abstract: The conventional wisdom for the healthcare sector is that idiosyncratic features leave little scope for market forces to allocate consumers to higher performance producers. However, we find robust evidence - across several different conditions and performance measures - that higher quality hospitals have higher market shares and grow more over time. The relationship between performance and allocation is stronger among patients who have greater scope for hospital choice, suggesting that patient demand plays an important role in allocation. Our findings suggest that healthcare may have more in common with "traditional" sectors subject to market forces than often assumed.
authors: Harvard Kennedy School and NBER, Amitabh_Chandra@harvard.edu , Mailbox 114, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
authors: Amitabh
authors: A
authors: Chandra
authors: Department of Economics, MIT and NBER; afink@mit.edu , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building E52, Room 442, Cambridge, MA 02139.
authors: Amy
authors: A
authors: Finkelstein
authors: Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, ajs2102@columbia.edu , 4th Floor, 722 West 168 Street, New York, NY 10032.
authors: Adam
authors: A
authors: Sacarny
authors: Chad
authors: C
authors: Syverson
mesh_terms: D019643:Arthroplasty, Replacement / Q000401:mortality; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004465:Economic Competition; D019981:Health Care Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000401:mortality; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015996:Survival Rate; D014481:United States
keywords: Allocation; Healthcare; Hospital Performance