IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/nhheco/2018_028.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Hospital Competition in the National Health Service: Evidence from a Patient Choice Reform

Author

Listed:

Abstract

We study the impact of exposing hospitals in a National Health Service (NHS) to non-price competition by exploiting a patient choice reform in Norway in 2001. The reform facilitates a difference-in-difference research design due to geographical variation in the scope for competition. Using rich administrative data covering the universe of NHS hospital admissions from 1998 to 2005, we find that hospitals in more competitive areas have a sharper reduction in AMI mortality, readmissions, and length of stay than hospitals in less competitive areas. These results indicate that competition improves patient health outcomes and hospital cost efficiency, even in the Norwegian NHS with large distances, low fixed treatment prices, and mainly public hospitals.

Suggested Citation

  • Brekke, Kurt R. & Canta, Chiara & Straume, Odd Rune & Siciliani, Luigi, 2018. "Hospital Competition in the National Health Service: Evidence from a Patient Choice Reform," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 28/2018, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2018_028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/11250/2578632
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Price and quality in spatial competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 471-480, November.
    2. Ghatak, Maitreesh & Mueller, Hannes, 2011. "Thanks for nothing? Not-for-profits and motivated agents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1-2), pages 94-105, February.
    3. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.
    4. Martin Gaynor & Kate Ho & Robert J. Town, 2015. "The Industrial Organization of Health-Care Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(2), pages 235-284, June.
    5. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2011. "Hospital Competition and Quality with Regulated Prices," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113, pages 444-469, June.
    6. Chou, Shin-Yi & Deily, Mary E. & Li, Suhui & Lu, Yi, 2014. "Competition and the impact of online hospital report cards," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 42-58.
    7. Zack Cooper & Stephen Gibbons & Simon Jones & Alistair McGuire, 2011. "Does Hospital Competition Save Lives? Evidence From The English NHS Patient Choice Reforms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(554), pages 228-260, August.
    8. Nicholas Bloom & Carol Propper & Stephan Seiler & John Van Reenen, 2015. "The Impact of Competition on Management Quality: Evidence from Public Hospitals," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(2), pages 457-489.
    9. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2008. "Competition and waiting times in hospital markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(7), pages 1607-1628, July.
    10. Daniel P. Kessler & Mark B. McClellan, 2000. "Is Hospital Competition Socially Wasteful?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 577-615.
    11. Propper, Carol & Burgess, Simon & Green, Katherine, 2004. "Does competition between hospitals improve the quality of care?: Hospital death rates and the NHS internal market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1247-1272, July.
    12. repec:imp:wpaper:9224 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Hans Fricke, 2017. "Identification Based on Difference-in-Differences Approaches with Multiple Treatments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(3), pages 426-433, June.
    14. Shen, Yu-Chu, 2003. "The effect of financial pressure on the quality of care in hospitals," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 243-269, March.
    15. Zack Cooper & Stephen Gibbons & Simon Jones & Alistair McGuire, 2012. "Does Competition Improve Public Hospitals' Efficiency? Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in the English National Health Service," CEP Discussion Papers dp1125, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. Domenico Lisi & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2020. "Hospital competition under pay‐for‐performance: Quality, mortality, and readmissions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 289-314, April.
    17. Sá, Luís & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2019. "Dynamic hospital competition under rationing by waiting times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 260-282.
    18. Martin Gaynor & Rodrigo Moreno-Serra & Carol Propper, 2013. "Death by Market Power: Reform, Competition, and Patient Outcomes in the National Health Service," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 134-166, November.
    19. Carol Propper & Simon Burgess & Denise Gossage, 2008. "Competition and Quality: Evidence from the NHS Internal Market 1991–9," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(525), pages 138-170, January.
    20. Daniel P. Kessler & Jeffrey J. Geppert, 2005. "The Effects of Competition on Variation in the Quality and Cost of Medical Care," NBER Working Papers 11226, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Cooper, Zack & Gibbons, Stephen & Skellern, Matthew, 2018. "Does competition from private surgical centres improve public hospitals' performance? Evidence from the English National Health Service," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 63-80.
    22. Martin Gaynor, "undated". "What Do We Know About Competition and Quality in Health Care Markets?," GSIA Working Papers 2006-E62, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    23. Paolo Berta & Gianmaria Martini & Francesco Moscone & Giorgio Vittadini, 2016. "The association between asymmetric information, hospital competition and quality of healthcare: evidence from Italy," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 179(4), pages 907-926, October.
    24. Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Health Economics," Handbook of Health Economics, Elsevier, volume 2, number 2.
    25. Laudicella, Mauro & Li Donni, Paolo & Smith, Peter C., 2013. "Hospital readmission rates: Signal of failure or success?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 909-921.
    26. Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Quality competition with profit constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 642-659.
    27. Tay, Abigail, 2003. "Assessing Competition in Hospital Care Markets: The Importance of Accounting for Quality Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(4), pages 786-814, Winter.
    28. Brekke, Kurt R. & Straume, Odd Rune, 2017. "Competition policy for health care provision in Norway," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 134-140.
    29. Carrie Colla & Julie Bynum & Andrea Austin & Jonathan Skinner, 2016. "Hospital Competition, Quality, and Expenditures in the U.S. Medicare Population," NBER Working Papers 22826, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    30. Roos, Anne-Fleur & O’Donnell, Owen & Schut, Frederik T. & Van Doorslaer, Eddy & Van Gestel, Raf & Varkevisser, Marco, 2020. "Does price deregulation in a competitive hospital market damage quality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    31. Giuseppe Moscelli & Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2021. "Hospital competition and quality for non‐emergency patients in the English NHS," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(2), pages 382-414, June.
    32. Daniel P. Kessler & Jeffrey J. Geppert, 2005. "The Effects of Competition on Variation in the Quality and Cost of Medical Care," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 575-589, September.
    33. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2015. "Hospital Competition with Soft Budgets," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(3), pages 1019-1048, July.
    34. Moscelli, Giuseppe & Gravelle, Hugh & Siciliani, Luigi & Santos, Rita, 2018. "Heterogeneous effects of patient choice and hospital competition on mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 50-58.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kortelainen, Mika & Laine, Liisa T. & Lavaste, Konsta & Saxell, Tanja & Siciliani, Luigi, 2023. "Improving Performance Through Allocation and Competition: Evidence from a Patient Choice Reform," Working Papers 156, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Milstein, Ricarda & Schreyögg, Jonas, 2024. "The end of an era? Activity-based funding based on diagnosis-related groups: A review of payment reforms in the inpatient sector in 10 high-income countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Jeannette Brosig‐Koch & Burkhard Hehenkamp & Johanna Kokot, 2023. "Who benefits from quality competition in health care? A theory and a laboratory experiment on the relevance of patient characteristics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1785-1817, August.
    4. Amerigo Ferrari & Chiara Seghieri & Andrea Giannini & Paolo Mannella & Tommaso Simoncini & Milena Vainieri, 2023. "Driving time drives the hospital choice: choice models for pelvic organ prolapse surgery in Italy," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 24(9), pages 1575-1586, December.
    5. Pedro Pita Barros, 2022. "Quality decreases from introducing patient choice in a National Health Service," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 21(3), pages 351-381, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roos, Anne-Fleur & O’Donnell, Owen & Schut, Frederik T. & Van Doorslaer, Eddy & Van Gestel, Raf & Varkevisser, Marco, 2020. "Does price deregulation in a competitive hospital market damage quality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Bell-Aldeghi, Rosalind & Chopard, Bertrand, 2021. "Hospital multi-dimensional quality competition with medical malpractice," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Giuseppe Moscelli & Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2021. "Hospital competition and quality for non‐emergency patients in the English NHS," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(2), pages 382-414, June.
    4. Piia Pekola & Ismo Linnosmaa & Hennamari Mikkola, 2017. "Competition and quality in a physiotherapy market with fixed prices," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(1), pages 97-117, January.
    5. Hugh Gravelle & Giuseppe Moscelli & Rita Santos & Luigi Siciliani, 2014. "Patient choice and the effects of hospital market structure on mortality for AMI, hip fracture and stroke patients," Working Papers 106cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    6. Jens Dietrichson & Lina Maria Ellegård & Gustav Kjellsson, 2020. "Patient choice, entry, and the quality of primary care: Evidence from Swedish reforms," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 716-730, June.
    7. Giuseppe Moscelli & Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2016. "Market structure, patient choice and hospital quality for elective patients," Working Papers 139cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    8. Giuseppe Moscelli & Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2018. "Effects of Market Structure and Patient Choice on Hospital Quality for Planned Patients," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1118, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    9. Moscelli, Giuseppe & Gravelle, Hugh & Siciliani, Luigi & Santos, Rita, 2018. "Heterogeneous effects of patient choice and hospital competition on mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 50-58.
    10. Francesco Longo & Luigi Siciliani & Giuseppe Moscelli & Hugh Gravelle, 2019. "Does hospital competition improve efficiency? The effect of the patient choice reform in England," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 618-640, May.
    11. Anne-Fleur Roos & Eddy van Doorslaer & Owen O'Donnell & Erik Schut & Marco Varkevisser, 2018. "Does price competition damage healthcare quality?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 18-040/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    12. Martin Gaynor & Kate Ho & Robert J. Town, 2015. "The Industrial Organization of Health-Care Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(2), pages 235-284, June.
    13. Alfons Palangkaraya & Jongsay Yong, 2013. "Effects of competition on hospital quality: an examination using hospital administrative data," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(3), pages 415-429, June.
    14. Domenico Lisi & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2020. "Hospital competition under pay‐for‐performance: Quality, mortality, and readmissions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 289-314, April.
    15. Moscelli, Giuseppe & Gravelle, Hugh & Siciliani, Luigi, 2023. "The effect of hospital choice and competition on inequalities in waiting times," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 169-201.
    16. Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2019. "Competition and equity in health care markets," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-14.
    17. Gravelle, Hugh & Santos, Rita & Siciliani, Luigi, 2014. "Does a hospital's quality depend on the quality of other hospitals? A spatial econometrics approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 203-216.
    18. Pan, Jay & Qin, Xuezheng & Li, Qian & Messina, Joseph P. & Delamater, Paul L., 2015. "Does hospital competition improve health care delivery in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 179-199.
    19. Hugh Gravelle & Rita Santos & Luigi Siciliani & Rosalind Goudie, 2012. "Hospital Quality Competition Under Fixed Prices," Working Papers 080cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    20. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Patient Choice; Hospital Competition; Quality; Cost-efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2018_028. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Karen Reed-Larsen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sonhhno.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.