Check Up Before You Check Out: Retail Clinics and Emergency Room Use

Diane Alexander, Janet Currie and Molly Schnell

No 23585, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The retail clinic is an innovation that has the potential to improve competition in health care markets. Given concern about inefficient use of the emergency room (ER) increasing health care costs, we use all ER visits in New Jersey from 2006-2014 to examine the impact of retail clinics on ER usage. We find that people residing close to an open clinic are 4.1-12.3 percent less likely to use an ER for preventable conditions and for minor acute conditions. Our estimates suggest annual cost savings of over $70 million from reduced ER usage if retail clinics were readily available across New Jersey.

JEL-codes: I11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Diane Alexander & Janet Currie & Molly Schnell, 2019. "Check up before you check out: Retail clinics and emergency room use," Journal of Public Economics, vol 178.

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Journal Article: Check up before you check out: Retail clinics and emergency room use (2019)
Working Paper: Check Up Before You Check Out: Retail Clinics and Emergency Room Use (2017)
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