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Efficiency and Administrative Costs in Primary Care

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Author Info
Antonio Giuffrida
Hugh Gravelle
Matthew Sutton

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Abstract

We construct a simple model of the determinants of administrative managerial effort and apply it explain the doubling of the cost of administering primary care in England in real terms between 1989/90 and 1994/5 following the introduction of the internal market. We find that the main cost driver was the number of GPs, that there are economies of scale but not economies of scope in administration, and that fundholding appeared to increase administrative costs. Most the increase in administrative cost over the period could not be explained by the change in the cost drivers or fundholding, suggesting that the recent abolition of fundholding may do little to reduce primary care administrative costs.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of York in its series Discussion Papers with number 99/27.

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Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:99/27

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Related research
Keywords: primary care; administrative costs; efficiency measurement; performance indicators.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs

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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.:
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  2. Newhouse, Joseph P., 1994. "Frontier estimation: How useful a tool for health economics?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 317-322, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Skinner, Jonathan, 1994. "What do stochastic frontier cost functions tell us about inefficiency?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 323-328, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Wholey, Douglas & Feldman, Roger & Christianson, Jon B. & Engberg, John, 1996. "Scale and scope economies among health maintenance organizations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 657-684, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-74, October.
  6. Gaynor, Martin & Pauly, Mark V, 1990. "Compensation and Productive Efficiency of Partnerships: Evidence from Medical Group Practice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(3), pages 544-73, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Tretheway, Michael W, 1980. "Flexible Cost Functions for Multiproduct Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(3), pages 477-81, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Hausman, Jerry A, 1978. "Specification Tests in Econometrics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1251-71, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Dor, Avi & Farley, Dean E., 1996. "Payment source and the cost of hospital care: Evidence from a multiproduct cost function with multiple payers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Andrew Street, 2003. "How much confidence should we place in efficiency estimates?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(11), pages 895-907. [Downloadable!]
  2. Antonio Giuffrida and & Hugh Gravelle, . "Measuring Performance in Primary Care: Econometric Analysis and DEA," Discussion Papers 99/36, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
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