Overview

This is the guide for Module 4, the last module of the class. Over these last few weeks, we’ll cover healthcare competition and the effects of mergers and closures. Most of this will deal with hospitals but we’ll have some discussion of vertical integration between hospitals and physicians as well as some papers on concentration in the dialysis industry.

Learning objectives

  1. Synthesize the literature on healthcare competition and its effects on prices and quality
  2. Describe the negotiation process between commercial insurance firms and hospitals, and distinguish between charges, costs, and prices
  3. Employ modern techniques for measuring hospital markets
  4. Analyze real data on (estimated) hospital prices

Data and econometrics topics

  1. Empirical issues in measuring hospital markets
  2. Demand estimation with market-level data

Main datasets

  1. HCRIS
  2. Provider of Services
  3. Measuring Hospital Markets
  4. Hospital Service Area Files