Strategies to enhance price and quality competition in health care: lessons learned from tracking local markets.
Drawing on observations from tracking changes in local health care markets over the past ten years, this article critiques two Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice recommendations to enhance price and quality competition. First, we take issue with the notion that consumers, acting inde...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 557 - 568 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Duke University Press
Jun2006
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=106356209&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 106356209 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 03616878 HPP jtl: Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law issn: 03616878 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2006 vid: 31 iid: 3 pid: 154 pub: Duke University Press place: Durham, North Carolina artinfo: ui: 106356209 2009257023 NLM16785297 106356209 ppf: 557 ppct: 11 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Strategies to enhance price and quality competition in health care: lessons learned from tracking local markets. aug: au: Lesser CS Ginsburg PB affil: Center for Studying Health System Change, USA. sug: subj: Consumer Advocacy Economic Competition Health Care Costs Health Care Reform Evaluation Health Care Reform Trends Health Services Accessibility Quality of Health Care Clinical Indicators Consumer Participation Consumer Satisfaction Cost Savings Decision Making, Patient Financing, Government Government Agencies Government Regulations Health Care Delivery Evaluation Medicare Motivation Performance Measurement Systems Policy Making Quality Improvement Reports Evaluation ab: Drawing on observations from tracking changes in local health care markets over the past ten years, this article critiques two Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice recommendations to enhance price and quality competition. First, we take issue with the notion that consumers, acting independently, will drive greater competition in health care markets. Rather we suggest an important role remains for trusted agents who can analyze inherently complex price and quality information and negotiate on consumers' behalf. With aggregated information identifying providers who deliver cost-effective care, consumers would be better positioned to respond to financial incentives about where to seek care and thereby drive more meaningful competition among providers to reduce costs and improve quality. Second, we take issue with the FTC/DOJ recommendation to provide more direct subsidies to prevent distortions in competition. In the current political environment, it is not practical to provide direct subsidies for all of the unfunded care that exists in health care markets today; instead, some interference with competition may be necessary to protect cross subsidies. Barriers can be reduced, though, by revising pricing policies that have resulted in marked disparities in the relative profitability of different services. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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