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Efficiency and administrative costs in primary care

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  • Giuffrida, Antonio
  • Gravelle, Hugh
  • Sutton, Matthew

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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  • Giuffrida, Antonio & Gravelle, Hugh & Sutton, Matthew, 2000. "Efficiency and administrative costs in primary care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 983-1006, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:19:y:2000:i:6:p:983-1006
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexandre Marinho, 2004. "Evidências e Modelos Sobre a Coexistência de Hospitais com Fins Lucrativos e Hospitais sem Fins Lucrativos no Sistema Único de Saúde Brasileiro," Discussion Papers 1041, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    2. Stefan Voigt, 2016. "Determinants of judicial efficiency: a survey," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 183-208, October.
    3. Andrew Street, 2003. "How much confidence should we place in efficiency estimates?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(11), pages 895-907, November.
    4. Antonio Giuffrida & Hugh Gravelle, 2001. "Measuring performance in primary care: econometric analysis and DEA," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 163-175.
    5. Luis Murillo-Zamorano & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Technical efficiency in primary health care: does quality matter?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(2), pages 115-125, April.
    6. Filipe Amado, Carla Alexandra & Dyson, Robert G., 2008. "On comparing the performance of primary care providers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 185(3), pages 915-932, March.
    7. Zhichao Wang & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2021. "Performance Analysis of Hospitals in Australia and its Peers: A Systematic Review," CEPA Working Papers Series WP012021, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    8. M. C. Gouveia & L. C. Dias & C. H. Antunes & M. A. Mota & E. M. Duarte & E. M. Tenreiro, 2016. "An application of value-based DEA to identify the best practices in primary health care," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 38(3), pages 743-767, July.
    9. Mann, Stefan, 2001. "Zur Effizienz der deutschen Agrarverwaltung," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 50(05), pages 1-6.
    10. Rhys Andrews & George A. Boyne, 2009. "Size, Structure and Administrative Overheads: An Empirical Analysis of English Local Authorities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(4), pages 739-759, April.
    11. Peter C. Smith & Andrew Street, 2005. "Measuring the efficiency of public services: the limits of analysis," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(2), pages 401-417, March.
    12. Larjow, Eugenia, 2018. "Administrative costs in health care—A scoping review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(11), pages 1240-1248.

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    More about this item

    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; Social Entrepreneurship

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