We consider how purchasers and providers negotiate the quality element of contracts when the purchasers are required to link a fixed proportion of revenue to quality. A simple model predicts that the complexity of the quality element will depend on purchaser and provider characteristics. Using...

Many countries use financial incentive programs to attract physicians to work in rural areas. This paper examines the effectiveness of a policy reform in Australia that made some locations newly eligible for financial incentives and increased incentives for locations already eligible. The...

We examine how public sector third-party purchasers and hospitals negotiate quality targets when a fixed proportion of hospital revenue is required to be linked to quality. We develop a bargaining model linking the number of quality targets to purchaser and hospital characteristics. Using data...

Prices for consultations with General Practitioners (GPs) in Australia are unregulated, and patients pay the difference between the price set by the GP and a fixed reimbursement from the national tax-funded Medicare insurance scheme. We construct a Vickrey-Salop model of GP price and quality...

Provider competition is a currently popular healthcare reform model. A necessary condition for greater competition to improve quality is that providers will face higher demand if they improve their quality. We test this crucial assumption in an important part of the health care market using data...

We analyse the demand for and the supply of night visits in primary care. A model of demand management by general practitioners and of their choice between meeting demand by making visits themselves or passing them to commercial deputising services is presented. Demand and supply equations are...

We construct a simple model of the determinants of administrative managerial effort and apply it explain the doubling of the cost of administering primary care in England in real terms between 1989/90 and 1994/5 following the introduction of the internal market. We find that the main cost driver...

We present a simple dynamic model of the demand and supply for elective surgery in the NHS and test it using a panel of quartely data for 123 English health authorities from the second quarter of 1987 to the first quarter of 1993. We find that supply is increasing in measures of the previous...

It has been suggested that, especially in countries with high per capita income, there is an independent effect of income distribution on the health of individuals. One source of evidence in support of this relative income hypothesis are analyses of aggregate cross section data on population...

Prices for consultations with General Practitioners (GPs) in Australia are unregulated, and patients pay the difference between the price set by the GP and a fixed reimbursement from the national tax-funded Medicare insurance scheme. We construct a Vickrey-Salop model of GP price and quality...