Nearly 3,000 local health departments (LHDs) across the United States are tasked with improving, maintaining, and monitoring population health. LHDs are an administrative or service unit of local or state government concerned with health, and carrying out the responsibility for the health of a jurisdiction smaller than a state.…Read More
Private equity (PE) investment in US healthcare has increased dramatically in recent years. On one hand, widespread PE participation may be one avenue to stem rising costs and increase productivity, which have been elusive objects in US healthcare. Research from other sectors has shown that PE firms apply best-in-class management practices to improve productivity and firm value. On the other hand, high powered financial incentives for PE managers may create conflicts with the interests of consumers and of taxpayers, who finance about 45% of healthcare spending. This project aims to study how PE investment affects quality and productivity of healthcare delivery in the US, issues of first order importance for both policy and business. We have assembled the most comprehensive set of data resources used to study this question – confidential micro data on PE investments in healthcare firms, and national data on services, spending, and outcomes for about 30 million Medicare beneficiaries over 2000–17. We will deploy a differences-in differences research design, exploiting variation in the timing of PE acquisitions across firms over this long panel. We will examine effects on 1) growth 2) operating efficiency, and 3) quality of care delivered, over the short and long-run.…Read More
Little is known currently about the effect of scale and scope on productivity and innovation in healthcare. We propose using unique and hitherto untapped Census economic files on the healthcare sector to answer these questions.…Read More
