Working Paper: NBER ID: w28576
Authors: Michael Geruso; Michael R. Richards
Abstract: Medicare pricing is known to indirectly influence provider prices and care provision for non-Medicare patients; however, Medicare's regulatory externalities beyond fee-setting are less well understood. We study how physicians' outpatient surgery choices for non-Medicare patients responded to Medicare removing a ban on ambulatory surgery center (ASC) use for a specific procedure. Following the rule change, surgeons began reallocating both Medicare and commercially insured patients to ASCs. Specifically, physicians became 70% more likely to use ASCs for the policy-targeted procedure among their non-Medicare patients. These novel findings demonstrate that Medicare rulemaking affects physician behavior beyond the program's statutory scope.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: H23; H42; H51; I11; I13; I18
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Removal of Medicare's ban on ASC use (I18) | Increase in likelihood of physicians utilizing ASCs for non-Medicare patients (I11) |
| Removal of Medicare's ban on ASC use (I18) | Change in physician behavior regarding outpatient surgery for non-Medicare patients (I11) |
| Removal of Medicare's ban on ASC use (I18) | Reallocation of patient types to ASCs (I11) |