 The effects of physician retirement on patient outcomes: Anticipation and disruptionXuan Zhang Journal of Public Economics, 2022, vol. 207, issue C Abstract: The physician retirement rate in the United States is increasing as the population ages. I use an event study model allowing for anticipation to evaluate the effects of primary care physician (PCP) retirement on elderly adults’ health care utilization and quality of care. I find that, despite moderate anticipatory effects, PCP retirement results in an approximately $572 increase in total Medicare costs per beneficiary in the first 1.5 years post-retirement and an over 10% increase in detection of new chronic conditions. Heterogeneity analyses show that the increase in costs is disproportionately driven by the retirement of solo practitioners; Medicare beneficiaries with a retired PCP practicing in states with mandatory physician departure notice experience less disruption in care; and beneficiaries living in primary care health professional shortage areas experience greater disruption in care. Keywords: Medicare; Physician retirement; Health care utilization; Quality of care; Anticipatory effect (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:207:y:2022:i:c:s0047272722000056 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104603 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier |
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