The closer the better: does better access to outpatient care prevent hospitalization? – by Péter ELEK, Tamás MOLNÁR and Balázs VÁRADI was published in The European Journal of Health Economics folyóiratban.
Abstract
In 2010–2012, new outpatient service locations were established in poor Hungarian micro-regions. We exploit this quasi-experiment to estimate the extent of substitution between outpatient and inpatient care. Fixed-effects Poisson models on individual-level panel data for years 2008–2015 show that the number of outpatient visits increased by 19% and the number of inpatient stays decreased by 1.6% as a result, driven by a marked reduction of potentially avoidable hospitalization (PAH) (5%). In our dynamic specification, PAH effects occur in the year after the treatment, whereas non-PAH only decreases with a multi-year lag. The instrumental variable estimates suggest that a one euro increase in outpatient care expenditures produces a 0.6 euro decrease in inpatient care expenditures. Our results (1) strengthen the claim that bringing outpatient care closer to a previously underserved population yields considerable health benefits, and (2) suggest that there is a strong substitution element between outpatient and inpatient care.
The Agglomeration and Social Networks Research Group (ANET LAB) in Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies is seeking a Post-Doc researcher, ... Details »
Does politicizing ‘gender’ influence the possibility of conducting academic research? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial by Tünde LÉNÁRD, Daniel HORN and Hubert János ... Details »
“PARENTAL JOB LOSS, SECONDARY SCHOOL COMPLETION AND HOME ENVIRONMENT” by Tamás HAJDU, Gábor KERTESI and Gábor KÉZDI was published in Acta Oeconomica. Abstract This ... Details »
