Working Paper: NBER ID: w16225
Authors: Justin Wang; Jason Hockenberry; Shinyi Chou; Muzhe Yang
Abstract: Since 1992, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) has published cardiac care report cards for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery providers. We examine the impact of CABG report cards on a provider's aggregate volume and volume by patient severity and then employ a mixed logit model to investigate the matching between patients and providers. We find a reduction in volume of poor performing and unrated surgeons' volume but no effect on more highly rated surgeons or hospitals of any rating. We also find that the probability that patients, regardless of severity of illness, receive CABG surgery from low-performing surgeons is significantly lower.
Keywords: CABG; report cards; provider quality; healthcare; patient choice
JEL Codes: I1; I11; I18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| CABG report cards (Y10) | reduction in patient volumes for poor performing and unrated surgeons (I11) |
| CABG report cards (Y10) | no significant effect on volumes of highly rated surgeons or hospitals (I11) |
| report cards (Y10) | influence on patient choice (I11) |
| poor ratings (Y70) | decreased volumes for those providers (I11) |
| patient volumes (I11) | report card ratings (Y10) |