Exploring physician agency under demand-side cost sharing-An experimental approach

Ge Ge; Geir Godager; Jian Wang

doi:10.1002/hec.4489

Exploring physician agency under demand-side cost sharing-An experimental approach

Health Econ. 2022 Jun;31(6):1202-1227. doi: 10.1002/hec.4489. Epub 2022 Apr 3.

Authors

Ge Ge¹, Geir Godager^{1

2}, Jian Wang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
² Health Services Research Unit, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
³ Dong Fureng Institute of Economic and Social Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

The assumption of patient-regarding physicians has been widely adopted in the health economics literature. Physicians' patient-regarding preferences are often described as the concern for the health benefits of medical treatments, and thus closely related to the norms and ethics of the medical profession. In this paper, we ask whether physicians' patient-regarding preferences include a concern for their patient's consumption opportunities alongside patient's health benefits. To identify and quantify physicians' preferences, we design and conduct an incentivized laboratory experiment where choices determine separately the health benefits and the consumption opportunities of a real patient admitted to the nearest hospital. We find strong evidence that future physicians care about their patients' consumption opportunities.

Keywords: demand-side cost sharing; incentivized laboratory experiment; physician preferences.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cost Sharing
Humans
Patient Preference
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians*