Resource scarcity and prioritization decisions in medical care: A lab experiment with heterogeneous patient types.
Health Econ
; 30(2): 470-477, 2021 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-921726
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care systems around the world have received additional funding, while at other times, financial support has been lowered to consolidate public spending. Such budget changes likely affect provision behavior in health care. We study how different degrees of resource scarcity affect medical service provision and, in consequence, patients' health. In a controlled lab environment, physicians are paid by capitation and allocate limited resources to several patients. This implies a trade-off between physicians' profits and patients' health benefits. We vary levels of resource scarcity and patient characteristics systematically and observe that most subjects in the role of physician devote a relatively stable share of budget to patient treatment, implying that they provide fewer services when they face more severe budget constraints. Average patient benefits decrease in proportion to physician budgets. The majority of subjects chooses an allocation that leads to equal patient benefits as opposed to allocating resources efficiently.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Physicians
/
Health Care Rationing
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Health Econ
Journal subject:
Health Services
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Hec.4192
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