Doctor’s Preference in Providing Medical Service for Patients in the Medical Alliance: A Pilot Discrete Choice Experiment

Richard Huan Xu, Lingming Zhou, Yong Li and Dong Wang
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Richard Huan Xu: Jockey Club School of public health and primary care, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Lingming Zhou: School of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
Yong Li: School of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
Dong Wang: School of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-11

Abstract: This cross-sectional survey study explored whether doctors in Guangdong, China preferred to provide extra healthcare services within the context of their medical alliances (MAs). Specifically, a discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to investigate whether doctors preferred to provide extra services at low-tier hospitals within their MAs. A literature review, focus group interview, and expert group discussion resulted in three main attributes (i.e., working time, income, and hospital location) and corresponding levels, which were combined to create 24 profiles that were randomly presented to participants. A conditional logit model was then employed to calculate utility scores for all profiles. A total of 311 doctors completed the DCE questionnaire. The coefficients for each level within the three attributes were ordered and found to be statistically significant. Working time had the greatest influence on utility scores, increasing by one hour per week (beta = 1.4, odds ratio (OR) = 4.07, p < 0.001), followed by income, which increased by 30% per month (beta = 1.19, OR = 3.3, p < 0.001). The utility scores for all profiles ranged between −0.27 and 3.07. Findings indicated that participants made trade-offs with respect to providing extra services within their MAs. Furthermore, utility varied between different subpopulations.

Keywords: medical alliance; healthcare; doctor preference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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