Shock, but no shift: Hospitals' responses to changes in patient insurance mix

Kathryn Wagner

Journal of Health Economics, 2016, vol. 49, issue C, 46-58

Abstract: Medicaid reimburses healthcare providers for services at a lower rate than any other type of insurance coverage. To account for the burden of treating Medicaid patients, providers claim that they must cost-shift by raising the rates of individuals covered by private insurance. Previous investigations of cost-shifting has produced mixed results. In this paper, I exploit a disabled Medicaid expansion where crowd-out was complete to investigate cost-shifting. I find that hospitals reduce the charge rates of the privately insured. Given that Medicaid is expanding in several states under the Affordable Care Act, these results may alleviate cost-shifting concerns of the reform.

Keywords: Medicaid; Health insurance; Hospitals; Cost shifting; Disability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:49:y:2016:i:c:p:46-58

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.06.008

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