IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v28y2019i9p1130-1145.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price effects of a hospital merger: Heterogeneity across health insurers, hospital products, and hospital locations

Author

Listed:
  • Anne‐Fleur Roos
  • Ramsis R. Croes
  • Victoria Shestalova
  • Marco Varkevisser
  • Frederik T. Schut

Abstract

In most studies on hospital merger effects, the unit of observation is the merged hospital, whereas the observed price is the weighted average across hospital products and across payers. However, little is known about whether price effects vary between hospital locations, products, and payers. We expand existing bargaining models to allow for heterogeneous price effects and use a difference‐in‐differences model in which price changes at the merging hospitals are compared with price changes at comparison hospitals. We find evidence of heterogeneous price effects across health insurers, hospital products and hospital locations. These findings have implications for ex ante merger scrutiny.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne‐Fleur Roos & Ramsis R. Croes & Victoria Shestalova & Marco Varkevisser & Frederik T. Schut, 2019. "Price effects of a hospital merger: Heterogeneity across health insurers, hospital products, and hospital locations," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(9), pages 1130-1145, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:28:y:2019:i:9:p:1130-1145
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3920
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.3920?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gaynor, Martin & Vogt, William B., 2000. "Antitrust and competition in health care markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 27, pages 1405-1487, Elsevier.
    2. R. Halbersma & M. Mikkers & E. Motchenkova & I. Seinen, 2011. "Market structure and hospital–insurer bargaining in the Netherlands," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(6), pages 589-603, December.
    3. Gautam Gowrisankaran & Aviv Nevo & Robert Town, 2015. "Mergers When Prices Are Negotiated: Evidence from the Hospital Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 172-203, January.
    4. Seth Sacher & Louis Silvia, 1998. "Antitrust Issues in Defining the Product Market for Hospital Services," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 181-202.
    5. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.
    6. Stephen G. Donald & Kevin Lang, 2007. "Inference with Difference-in-Differences and Other Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 221-233, May.
    7. Yaa Akosa Antwi & Martin S. Gaynor & William B. Vogt, 2009. "A Bargain at Twice the Price? California Hospital Prices in the New Millennium," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 12, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Aileen Thompson, 2011. "The Effect of Hospital Mergers on Inpatient Prices: A Case Study of the New Hanover-Cape Fear Transaction," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 91-101.
    9. Matthew Grennan, 2014. "Bargaining Ability and Competitive Advantage: Empirical Evidence from Medical Devices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(12), pages 3011-3025, December.
    10. repec:zbw:rwirep:0469 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Gaynor, Martin & Vogt, William B, 2003. "Competition among Hospitals," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(4), pages 764-785, Winter.
    12. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    13. Ho, Vivian & Town, Robert J. & Heslin, Martin J., 2007. "Regionalization versus competition in complex cancer surgery," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 51-71, January.
    14. Capps, Cory & Dranove, David & Satterthwaite, Mark, 2003. "Competition and Market Power in Option Demand Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(4), pages 737-763, Winter.
    15. Town, Robert & Vistnes, Gregory, 2001. "Hospital competition in HMO networks," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 733-753, September.
    16. Kenneth Elzinga & Anthony Swisher, 2011. "Limits of the Elzinga-Hogarty Test in Hospital Mergers: The Evanston Case," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 133-146.
    17. Hentschker, Corinna & Mennicken, Roman & Schmid, Andreas, 2014. "Defining Hospital Markets - An Application to the German Hospital Sector," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(28), pages 1-17.
    18. Frederik T. Schut & Wynand P. M. M. Van de Ven, 2005. "Rationing and competition in the Dutch health‐care system," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(S1), pages 59-74, September.
    19. Steven Tenn, 2011. "The Price Effects of Hospital Mergers: A Case Study of the Sutter-Summit Transaction," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 65-82.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Jason Shafrin’s journal round-up for 9th September 2019
      by Jason Shafrin in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2019-09-09 11:00:23
    2. Academic Health Economist’s Blog: Journal Round Up
      by Jason Shafrin in Healthcare Economist on 2019-09-09 21:01:11

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chiara Brouns & Rudy Douven & Ron Kemp, 2021. "Prices and market power in mental health care: Evidence from a major policy change in the Netherlands," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 803-819, April.
    2. Chiara Brouns & Rudy Douven & Ron Kemp, 2021. "Prices and market power in mental health care: Evidence from a major policy change in the Netherlands," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 803-819, April.
    3. Charlotte Davies, 2020. "The supply side to procurement in a health market: competition and innovation in hip implants," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2020-01, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    4. Davies, Charlotte & Davies, Stephen, 2021. "Assessing competition in the hip implant industry in the light of recent policy guidance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    5. Roos, Anne-Fleur & O’Donnell, Owen & Schut, Frederik T. & Van Doorslaer, Eddy & Van Gestel, Raf & Varkevisser, Marco, 2020. "Does price deregulation in a competitive hospital market damage quality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    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. 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. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Samuel Kleiner & William White & Sean Lyons, 2015. "Market power and provider consolidation in physician markets," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 99-126, March.
    6. Schmid, Andreas & Varkevisser, Marco, 2016. "Hospital merger control in Germany, the Netherlands and England: Experiences and challenges," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 16-25.
    7. R. Halbersma & M. Mikkers & E. Motchenkova & I. Seinen, 2011. "Market structure and hospital–insurer bargaining in the Netherlands," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(6), pages 589-603, December.
    8. Berden, Carolien & Croes, R. & Kemp, R. & Mikkers, Misja & van der Noll, Rob & Shestalova, V. & Svitak, Jan, 2019. "Hospital Competition in the Netherlands : An Empirical Investigation," Other publications TiSEM 5302ab6a-9099-4b5d-9874-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Ron Kemp & Nikki Kersten & Astrid Severijnen, 2012. "Price Effects of Dutch Hospital Mergers: An Ex-post Assessment of Hip Surgery," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 237-255, September.
    10. Pan, Jay & Qin, Xuezheng & Li, Qian & Messina, Joseph P. & Delamater, Paul L., 2015. "Does hospital competition improve health care delivery in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 179-199.
    11. Robert Town & Douglas Wholey & Roger Feldman & Lawton R. Burns, 2006. "The Welfare Consequences of Hospital Mergers," NBER Working Papers 12244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. 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.
    13. Thomas Koch & Shawn W. Ulrick, 2021. "Price Effects Of A Merger: Evidence From A Physicians' Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(2), pages 790-802, April.
    14. Cory S. Capps & Dennis W. Carlton & Guy David, 2020. "Antitrust Treatment Of Nonprofits: Should Hospitals Receive Special Care?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(3), pages 1183-1199, July.
    15. Chiara Brouns & Rudy Douven & Ron Kemp, 2021. "Prices and market power in mental health care: Evidence from a major policy change in the Netherlands," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 803-819, April.
    16. Orley Ashenfelter & Daniel Hosken & Michael Vita & Matthew Weinberg, 2011. "Retrospective Analysis of Hospital Mergers," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 5-16.
    17. Chiara Brouns & Rudy Douven & Ron Kemp, 2021. "Prices and market power in mental health care: Evidence from a major policy change in the Netherlands," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 803-819, April.
    18. Dana Goldman & John A. Romley, 2008. "Hospitals As Hotels: The Role of Patient Amenities in Hospital Demand," NBER Working Papers 14619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Roos, Anne-Fleur & O’Donnell, Owen & Schut, Frederik T. & Van Doorslaer, Eddy & Van Gestel, Raf & Varkevisser, Marco, 2020. "Does price deregulation in a competitive hospital market damage quality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    20. Martin Gaynor, "undated". "What Do We Know About Competition and Quality in Health Care Markets?," GSIA Working Papers 2006-E62, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.

    More about this item

    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:wly:hlthec:v:28:y:2019:i:9:p:1130-1145. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.