An extensive literature relating patients' expectations to treatment outcomes has not addressed the determinants of these expectations. We argue that treatment history is part of a reference point that influences the patients' expectations of how effective further treatment might be, thus...

This paper analyzes the welfare effect from government sponsored insurance under two policy regimes for reimbursement levels - the first under which policy makers commit to a specific reimbursement schedule, the second which allows discretion in setting reimbursement schedules. We find that...

There has been minimal attention paid to the mechanisms of hospital quality oversight that are currently in place. Accordingly this study will analyze the system of hospital quality regulation in the US. The Social Security Act as amended in 1965 gave the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of...