This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Service motives and profit incentives among physicans

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Godager, Geir () (Institute of Health Management and Health Economics)
Iversen, Tor () (Institute of Health Management and Health Economics)
Ma , Ching-To Albert () (Department of Economics, Boston University)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

We model physicians as health care professionals who care about their services and monetary rewards. These preferences are heterogeneous. Different physicians trade off the monetary and service motives differently, and therefore respond differently to incentive schemes. Our model is set up for the Norwegian health care system. First, each private practice physician has a patient list, which may have more or less patients than he desires. The physician is paid a fee-for-service reimbursement and a capitation per listed patient. Second, a municipality may obligate the physician to perform 7.5 hours per week of community services. Our data are on an unbalanced panel of 435 physicians, with 412 physicians for the year 2002, and 400 for 2004. A physician’s amount of gross wealth and gross debt in previous periods are used as proxy for preferences for community service. First, for the current period, accumulated wealth and debt are predetermined. Second, wealth and debt capture lifestyle preferences because they correlate with the planned future income and spending. The main results show that both gross debt and gross wealth have negative effects on physicians’ supply of community health services. Gross debt and wealth have no effect on fee-for-service income per listed person in the physician’s practice, and positive effects on the total income from fee-for-service; hence, the higher income from fee-for-service is due to a longer patient list. Patient shortage has no significant effect on physicians’ supply of community services, a positive effect on the fee-for-service income per listed person, and no effect on the total income from fee-for service. These results confirm physician preference heterogeneity.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.hero.uio.no/publicat/2007/HERO2007_4.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Oslo University, Health Economics Research Programme in its series HERO On line Working Paper Series with number 2007:4.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 37 pages
Date of creation: 03 Jun 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:oslohe:2007_004

Contact details of provider:
Postal: HERO / Institute of Health Management and Health Economics P.O. Box 1089 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway
Phone: 2307 5309
Fax: 2307 5310
Email:
Web page: http://www.hero.uio.no/eng.html
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Gunn Kristin Tjoflot).

Related research
Keywords: physicians; incentive schemes; patient list; fee-for-service reimbursement; capitation per listed patient;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Bazzoli, Gloria J., 1985. "Does educational indebtedness affect physician specialty choice?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Marc Fox, 2003. "Medical student indebtedness and the propensity to enter academic medicine," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 101-112. [Downloadable!]
  3. Culler, Steven D. & Bazzoli, Gloria J., 1985. "The moonlighting decisions of resident physicians," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 283-292, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Moffitt, Robert A., 1999. "New developments in econometric methods for labor market analysis," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1367-1397 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Godager, Geir & Lurås, Hilde, 2009. "I skyggen av Fastlegeordningen: Hvordan har det gått med det offentlige legearbeidet?," HERO On line Working Paper Series 2005:6, Oslo University, Health Economics Research Programme. [Downloadable!]
  6. John List & Matti Liski, 2005. "Introduction," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 31(2), pages 121-121, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Jonathan Gruber & Maria Owings, 1996. "Physician Financial Incentives and Cesarean Section Delivery," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(1), pages 99-123, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Thornton, James, 2000. "Physician Choice of Medical Specialty: Do Economic Incentives Matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 32(11), pages 1419-28, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. G. Fiorentini & E. Iezzi & M. Lippi Bruni & C. Ugolini, 2009. "Incentives In Primary Care and Their Impact on Potentially Avoidable Hospital Admissions," Working Papers 660, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna. [Downloadable!]
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? All full texts are decentralized with the publishers, none reside on this server, thus making it possible to offer this service for free to all parties.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-21.


This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.