Health Insurance Expansions and Provider Behavior: Evidence from Substance Use Disorder Providers

Johanna Maclean, Ioana Popovici and Elisheva Rachel Stern

No 23094, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine how substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers respond to private insurance expansions induced by state equal coverage (‘parity’) laws for SUD treatment vis-à-vis general healthcare services. Economic theory suggests that such laws will lead to changes in provider behaviors. We use data on licensed specialty SUD treatment providers in the United States between 1997 and 2010 in a differences-in-differences analysis. During this period, 12 states implemented laws that require equality in coverage for SUD treatment. Following the passage of a state parity law we find that providers are less likely to participate in public markets, are less likely to offer price discounts to patients, and increase the quantity of healthcare provided. Further we find evidence that treatment intensity declines following passage of a parity law and heterogeneity in effects across ownership status.

JEL-codes: I1 I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Johanna Catherine Maclean & Ioana Popovici & Elisheva R. Stern, 2018. "Health Insurance Expansions and Providers’ Behavior: Evidence from Substance-Use- Disorder Treatment Providers," The Journal of Law and Economics, vol 61(2), pages 279-310.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23094.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Health Insurance Expansions and Provider Behavior: Evidence from Substance Use Disorder Providers (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23094

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23094

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().