Does quality affect patients? choice of doctor? Evidence from the UK

Hugh S Gravelle, Carol Propper and Rita Santos

No 9534, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Provider competition is a currently popular healthcare reform model. A necessary condition for greater competition to improve quality is that providers will face higher demand if they improve their quality. We test this crucial assumption in an important part of the health care market using data on the choices made by 3.4 million English patients from amongst nearly 1000 family doctor practices. We find that patients do respond to quality: a one standard deviation increase in a publicly available measure of clinical quality would increase the number of patients a practice would attract by around 15%.

Keywords: Quality; Demand; Healthcare; Choice; Competition; Family practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Working Paper: Does quality affect patients’ choice of doctor? Evidence from the UK (2013)
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