IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v105y2015i5p110-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Narrow Networks on the Health Insurance Exchanges: What Do They Look Like and How Do They Affect Pricing? A Case Study of Texas

Author

Listed:
  • Leemore Dafny
  • Igal Hendel
  • Nathan Wilson

Abstract

The Affordable Care Act has engendered significant changes in the design of health insurance products. We examine the "narrowness" of hospital networks affiliated with plans offered in the first year of the marketplaces. Using data from Texas, we find limited evidence of a tight link between pricing and a simple measure of network breadth, or a more complex measure of network value derived from a logit model of hospital choice. The state's largest insurer priced its narrow networks at a fairly constant discount relative to its broad networks, notwithstanding significant variation in its broad-narrow gap across geographic markets in Texas.

Suggested Citation

  • Leemore Dafny & Igal Hendel & Nathan Wilson, 2015. "Narrow Networks on the Health Insurance Exchanges: What Do They Look Like and How Do They Affect Pricing? A Case Study of Texas," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 110-114, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:105:y:2015:i:5:p:110-14
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151081
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.p20151081
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10505/P2015_1081_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leemore Dafny, 2009. "Estimation and Identification of Merger Effects: An Application to Hospital Mergers," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(3), pages 523-550, August.
    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. 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.
    2. Drake, Coleman, 2019. "What are consumers willing to pay for a broad network health plan?: Evidence from covered California," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 63-77.
    3. Kate Ho & Robin S. Lee, 2019. "Equilibrium Provider Networks: Bargaining and Exclusion in Health Care Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(2), pages 473-522, February.
    4. Nicholas Tilipman, 2022. "Employer Incentives and Distortions in Health Insurance Design: Implications for Welfare and Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 998-1037, March.
    5. Eli Liebman & Matthew T. Panhans, 2021. "Why do narrow network plans cost less?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2437-2451, September.
    6. Daniel Hosken & David Schmidt & Matthew C. Weinberg, 2020. "Any Willing Provider and Negotiated Retail Pharmaceutical Prices," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 1-39, March.
    7. Buitrago, Giancarlo & Rodríguez-Lesmes, Paul Andrés & Serna, Natalia & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2023. "The Role of Hospital Networks in Individual Mortality," Documentos de Trabajo 20945, Universidad del Rosario.

    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. Christos Genakos & Andreas Lamprinidis & James Walker, 2023. "Evaluating merger effects," CEP Discussion Papers dp1921, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Seth Freedman & Haizhen Lin & Jeffrey Prince, 2018. "Does Competition Lead to Agglomeration or Dispersion in EMR Vendor Decisions?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 53(1), pages 57-79, August.
    3. Gugler, Klaus & Szücs, Florian, 2013. "Spillover effects in oligopolistic markets," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79905, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. R. Forrest McCluer & Martha A. Starr, 2013. "Using Difference in Differences to Estimate Damages in Healthcare Antitrust: A Case Study of Marshfield Clinic," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 447-469, November.
    5. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2013. "Hospital Mergers: A Spatial Competition Approach," NIPE Working Papers 04/2013, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    6. Joel Stiebale & Florian Szücs, 2022. "Mergers and market power: evidence from rivals' responses in European markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(4), pages 678-702, December.
    7. Gaynor, Martin & Laudicella, Mauro & Propper, Carol, 2012. "Can governments do it better? Merger mania and hospital outcomes in the English NHS," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 528-543.
    8. Philippe Choné & Lionel Wilner, 2022. "Financial Incentives and Competitive Pressure: The Case of the Hospital Industry," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 626-666.
    9. Jin‐Hyuk Kim & Liad Wagman & Abraham L. Wickelgren, 2019. "The impact of access to consumer data on the competitive effects of horizontal mergers and exclusive dealing," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 373-391, June.
    10. Garthwaite, Craig & Ody, Christopher & Starc, Amanda, 2022. "Endogenous quality investments in the U.S. hospital market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Zack Cooper & Stuart V Craig & Martin Gaynor & John Van Reenen, 2019. "The Price Ain’t Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 51-107.
    12. Harris, Jeremiah & Siebert, Ralph, 2017. "Firm-specific time preferences and postmerger firm performance," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 32-62.
    13. Gugler, Klaus & Szücs, Florian, 2016. "Merger externalities in oligopolistic markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 230-254.
    14. Nathan E. Wilson, 2021. "The Impact of Competition on Investment: Evidence From California Hospitals," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 1-32, March.
    15. Somnath Das, 2019. "Effect of Merger on Market Price and Product Quality: American and US Airways," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 55(3), pages 339-374, November.
    16. Martin S. Gaynor & Samuel A. Kleiner & William B. Vogt, 2013. "A Structural Approach to Market Definition With an Application to the Hospital Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 243-289, June.
    17. Leemore Dafny & Jonathan Gruber & Christopher Ody, 2014. "More Insurers Lower Premiums: Evidence from Initial Pricing in the Health Insurance Marketplaces," NBER Working Papers 20140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Deborah Haas-Wilson & Christopher Garmon, 2011. "Hospital Mergers and Competitive Effects: Two Retrospective Analyses," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 17-32.
    19. H. Frech & Christopher Whaley & Benjamin Handel & Liora Bowers & Carol Simon & Richard Scheffler, 2015. "Market Power, Transactions Costs, and the Entry of Accountable Care Organizations in Health Care," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 47(2), pages 167-193, September.
    20. Stuart V. Craig & Matthew Grennan & Ashley Swanson, 2021. "Mergers and marginal costs: New evidence on hospital buyer power," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(1), pages 151-178, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

    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:aea:aecrev:v:105:y:2015:i:5:p:110-14. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.