Can Amputation Save the Hospital? The Impact of the Medicare Rural Flexibility Program on Demand and Welfare

Philipp Schmidt-Dengler, Gautam Gowrisankaran, Claudio Lucarelli and Robert Town

VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: This paper seeks to understand the impact of the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexi- bility (Flex) Program on rural resident hospital choice and welfare. The Flex program created a new class of hospital, the Critical Access Hospital (CAH), which receives more generous reimbursement in return for limits on capacity and length of stay. We fi nd that conversion to CAH status reduced inpatient admissions by a mean of 5.4%, of which almost all was driven by factors other than capacity. The program increased consumer welfare if it reduced the closure rate by at least 4 percentage points.

JEL-codes: D12 I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Related works:
Journal Article: Can amputation save the hospital? The impact of the Medicare Rural Flexibility Program on demand and welfare (2018)
Working Paper: Can Amputation Save the Hospital? The Impact of the Medicare Rural Flexibility Program on Demand and Welfare (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc13:79920

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