Working Paper: NBER ID: w23585
Authors: Diane Alexander; Janet Currie; Molly Schnell
Abstract: The retail clinic is an innovation that has the potential to improve competition in health care markets. Given concern about inefficient use of the emergency room (ER) increasing health care costs, we use all ER visits in New Jersey from 2006-2014 to examine the impact of retail clinics on ER usage. We find that people residing close to an open clinic are 4.1-12.3 percent less likely to use an ER for preventable conditions and for minor acute conditions. Our estimates suggest annual cost savings of over $70 million from reduced ER usage if retail clinics were readily available across New Jersey.
Keywords: retail clinics; emergency room; healthcare competition; preventable conditions; cost savings
JEL Codes: I11
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Retail Clinics (I11) | ER visits for preventable conditions (I12) |
| Retail Clinics (I11) | ER visits for influenza (I19) |
| Retail Clinics (I11) | ER visits for diabetes (I10) |
| Retail Clinics (I11) | ER visits for primary care treatable conditions (I11) |
| Retail Clinics (I11) | ER visits for emergent non-preventable conditions (I11) |
| Retail Clinics (I11) | Annual cost savings from reduced ER usage (J32) |