The Changing of the Guards: Can Physicians Contain Social Insurance Costs?

Simen Markussen, Knut Røed () and Ole Rogeberg

No 7122, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Based on administrative data from Norway, we examine the extent to which family doctors influence their clients' propensity to claim sick pay and disability benefits. The analysis is based on exogenous shifts of family doctors occurring when physicians quit, retire, or for other reasons sell their patient lists to other doctors. Our key finding is that family doctors have significant influence on their clients' benefit claims. We conclude that it is possible for family doctors to contain social insurance costs to some extent, and that there is a significant variation across doctors in the way they do so.

Keywords: disability insurance; absence certification; gatekeepers; sick pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-pub
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - revised version published as 'The Changing of the Guards: Can Family Doctors Contain Worker Absenteeism?' in: Journal of Health Economics, 2013, 32 (6), 1230–1239

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