Physician-patient race-match reduces patient mortality

Andrew J. Hill, Daniel B. Jones and Lindsey Woodworth

Journal of Health Economics, 2023, vol. 92, issue C

Abstract: This paper assesses the impacts of physician-patient race-match, especially Black patients paired with Black physicians, on patient mortality. We draw on administrative data from Florida, linking hospital encounters from mid-2011 through 2014 to information from the Florida Physician Workforce Survey. Focusing on uninsured patients experiencing unscheduled hospital admissions who are conditionally randomly assigned to physicians, we find that physician-patient race-match for Black patients reduces the likelihood of within-hospital mortality by 0.28 percentage points, a 27 % reduction relative to the overall mortality rate. An alternative identification strategy relying on instrumental variables provides a similar finding.

Keywords: Racial disparities; Hospitals; Health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:92:y:2023:i:c:s016762962300098x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102821

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