The Determinants of Technological Change in Heart Attack Treatment

David Cutler and Mark McClellan

No 5751, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the sources of expenditure growth in heart attack treatment. We first show that essentially all of cost growth is a result of the diffusion of particular intensive technologies; the prices paid for a given level of technology have been constant or falling over time. We then examine the reasons for this technology diffusion. We distinguish six factors that may influence technology diffusion: organizational factors within hospitals; the insurance environment in which technology is reimbursed; public policy regulating new technology; malpractice concerns; competitive or cooperative interactions among providers; and demographic composition. We conclude that insurance variables, technology regulation, and provider interactions have the largest quantitative effect on technological diffusion. These factors affect both technology acquisition and the frequency of technology use.

Date: 1996-09
Note: AG EH PR PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (69)

Published as With Joseph D. Newhouse and Dahlia Remler, published as "Are Medical Prices Declining? Evidence for Heart Attack Treatments", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 108, no. 4 (November 1998).

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w5751.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5751

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w5751

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().