Did the HMO revolution cause hospital consolidation?
By: Robert Town ... [et al.].
Contributors: Town, Robert J.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 11087; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 11087.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Health maintenance organizations -- Economic aspects -- United States.; Hospital closures -- United States.
Description: "During the 1990s US healthcare markets underwent a significant transformation.  Managed care rose to become the dominant form of insurance in the private sector.  Also, a wave of hospital consolidation occurred.  In 1990, the mean population-weighted hospital Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) in a Health Services Area (HSA) was .19.  By 2000, the HHI had risen to .26.  This paper explores whether the rise in managed care caused the increase in hospital concentration.  We use an instrumental variables approach with 10-year differences to identify the relationship between managed care penetration and hospital consolidation.  Our results strongly imply that the rise of managed care did not cause the hospital consolidation wave.  This finding is robust to a number of different specifications"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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