Should Hospitals and Managed Care Organizations Compete for the Health of It

Abstract

This empirical research uses data from the population of inpatient Medicare hospitalization occurrences in Florida during 1995. Seventeen diagnoses are selected and examined using patient discharge data from this state. Measures of local competition, including Herfindahl indices as measures of hospital and managed care market structure, are constructed using these patient data, the A.H.A. Annual Survey data, and H.C.F.A. data. Quality of care is measured by simple mortality. In this thesis, we provide clear evidence of the impact of managed care status and competition in both the hospital and managed care markets on the quality of health care for the Medicare population.