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Does quality affect patients’ choice of doctor? Evidence from the UK

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  • Rita Santos
  • Hugh Gravelle
  • Carol Propper

Abstract

Provider competition is a currently popular healthcare reform model. A necessary condition for greater competition to improve quality is that providers will face higher demand if they improve their quality. We test this crucial assumption in an important part of the health care market using data on the choices made by 3.4 million English patients from amongst nearly 1000 family doctor practices. We find that patients do respond to quality: a one standard deviation increase in a publicly available measure of clinical quality would increase the number of patients a practice would attract by around 15%.

Suggested Citation

  • Rita Santos & Hugh Gravelle & Carol Propper, 2013. "Does quality affect patients’ choice of doctor? Evidence from the UK," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 13/306, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    • Handle: RePEc:bri:cmpowp:13/306
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    Cited by:

    1. Nadja Kairies-Schwarz, 2014. "Altruism Heterogeneity and Quality Competition Among Healthcare Providers," Ruhr Economic Papers 0507, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Walter Beckert, 2015. "Choice in the Presence of Experts," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 1503, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    3. Moscelli, Giuseppe & Siciliani, Luigi & Gutacker, Nils & Gravelle, Hugh, 2016. "Location, quality and choice of hospital: Evidence from England 2002–2013," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 112-124.
    4. Brekke, Kurt R. & Holmås, Tor Helge & Monstad, Karin & Straume, Odd Rune, 2019. "Competition and physician behaviour: Does the competitive environment affect the propensity to issue sickness certificates?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 117-135.
    5. Piia Pekola & Ismo Linnosmaa & Hennamari Mikkola, 2017. "Does Competition Have an Effect on Price and Quality in Physiotherapy?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1278-1290, October.
    6. Markussen, Simen & Røed, Knut, 2017. "The market for paid sick leave," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 244-261.
    7. Davari, Soheil & Kilic, Kemal & Naderi, Siamak, 2016. "A heuristic approach to solve the preventive health care problem with budget and congestion constraints," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 276(C), pages 442-453.
    8. Beckert, Walter, 2018. "Choice in the presence of experts: The role of general practitioners in patients’ hospital choice," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 98-117.
    9. Gravelle, Hugh & Liu, Dan & Propper, Carol & Santos, Rita, 2019. "Spatial competition and quality: Evidence from the English family doctor market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Gutacker, Nils & Siciliani, Luigi & Moscelli, Giuseppe & Gravelle, Hugh, 2016. "Choice of hospital: Which type of quality matters?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 230-246.
    11. Jens Dietrichson & Lina Maria Ellegård & Gustav Kjellsson, 2020. "Patient choice, entry, and the quality of primary care: Evidence from Swedish reforms," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 716-730, June.
    12. Giuseppe Moscelli & Luigi Siciliani & Nils Gutacker & Hugh Gravelle, 2016. "Location, quality and choice of hospital: Evidence from England 2002/3 - 2012/13," Working Papers 123cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    13. Carrie Colla & Julie Bynum & Andrea Austin & Jonathan Skinner, 2016. "Hospital Competition, Quality, and Expenditures in the U.S. Medicare Population," NBER Working Papers 22826, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Brekke, Kurt R. & Holmås, Tor Helge & Monstad, Karin & Straume, Odd Rune, 2017. "Competition and physician behaviour: Does the competitive environment the propensity to issue sickness certificates?," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 3/2017, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    15. Soheil Davari & Kemal Kilic & Gurdal Ertek, 2015. "Fuzzy bi-objective preventive health care network design," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 303-317, September.
    16. repec:zbw:rwirep:0507 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Kairies-Schwarz, Nadja, 2014. "Altruism Heterogeneity and Quality Competition Among Healthcare Providers," Ruhr Economic Papers 507, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Quality; demand; healthcare; choice; competition; family practice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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