This paper reports on a study of expense preference behavior in a conditional sample of hospitals (before and after adoption of contract-management arrangements), using an extension of Mester's (1989) test. To identify expense preference parameters, input demand equations are considered in...

This paper explores potential realization of gains by hospitals that are managed on a day-to-day basis by external organizations under formal contracts. It draws from the incentives literature, which postulates that managers of firms where ownership is separated from control will employ an input...

Pricing methodologies in Medicare vary from one component of the system to another, often leading to conflicting incentives. Failure to recognize linkages may result in inefficient allocation of resources and higher overall costs. To motivate the analysis, I derive pricing rules for a...

"Insurance for prescription drugs is characterized by two types of cost-sharing: flat copayments and variable coinsurance. We develop a theoretical model to show that refill purchases of drugs are lower under coinsurance due to the consumer's exposure to variation in drug prices. We test this...