Does Seeing the Doctor More Often Keep You Out of the Hospital?

Robert Kaestner and Anthony T. Lo Sasso
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Anthony Lo Sasso

No 18255, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: By exploiting a unique health insurance benefit design, we provide novel evidence on the causal association between outpatient and inpatient care. Our results indicate that greater outpatient spending was associated with more hospital admissions: a $100 increase in outpatient spending was associated with a 2.7% increase in the probability of having an inpatient event and a 4.6% increase in inpatient spending among enrollees in our sample. Moreover, we present evidence that the increase in hospital admissions associated with greater outpatient spending was for conditions in which it is plausible to argue that the physician and patient could exercise discretion.

JEL-codes: I12 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
Note: EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Kaestner, Robert & Sasso, Anthony T. Lo, 2015. "Does seeing the doctor more often keep you out of the hospital?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 259-272.

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Journal Article: Does seeing the doctor more often keep you out of the hospital? (2015)
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