Data on Managed Care Described by Researchers at Stanford University (Can Beneficiary Information Improve Hospital Accountability? Experimental Evidence From a Public Health Insurance Scheme In India): Managed Care

2023 JUN 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Current study results on Managed Care have been published. According to news reporting originating in Stanford, California, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “We study the role of hospital compliance in the effectiveness of government health insurance in India. Using patient surveys, we document that participating hospitals charge unauthorized fees to poor patients eligible to receive free care.”

Funders for this research include JPAL Governance Initiative, Weiss Fund, Stanford University.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Stanford University, “Average out-of-pocket payments (OOPP) for chronic kidney care patients are $43 per month, or 25% annual GDP per capita, and are high at both public and private hos-pitals. Awareness of program benefits is low despite patients having used insurance for several months. We conduct a randomized experiment to test whether phone-based information about program benefits can enable insurance beneficiaries to hold hospitals accountable and lower OOPP. The intervention effec-tively increases program awareness by 0.17 standard deviations but has no effect on OOPP overall. However, effects differ dramatically by hospital sector: patients at private hospital see no change in OOPP despite increased bargaining and search; monthly OOPP among patients visiting public hospitals, who are poorer and lower caste, drop by $12 (35%), because they are able to negotiate to get more of their benefits at the hospital instead of paying for them off-site.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The findings suggest that patient-driven accountability can meaningfully improve public service delivery, even in the context of specialized ter-tiary care, but may not substitute for top-down monitoring of private agents.(.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Can Beneficiary Information Improve Hospital Accountability? Experimental Evidence From a Public Health Insurance Scheme In India. Journal of Public Economics, 2023;220. Journal of Public Economics can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Sa, PO Box 564, 1001 Lausanne, Switzerland. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of Public Economics - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-public-economics/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Pascaline Dupas, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104841. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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