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Resource scarcity and prioritization decisions in medical care: A lab experiment with heterogeneous patient types
Author(s) -
Brendel Franziska,
Einhaus Lisa,
Then Franziska
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.4192
Subject(s) - scarcity , capitation , affect (linguistics) , business , resource allocation , health care , prioritization , health care rationing , public health , service (business) , actuarial science , public economics , medicine , economics , nursing , marketing , psychology , economic growth , microeconomics , market economy , process management , communication
During the COVID‐19 pandemic, health care systems around the world have received additional funding, while at other times, financial support has been lowered to consolidate public spending. Such budget changes likely affect provision behavior in health care. We study how different degrees of resource scarcity affect medical service provision and, in consequence, patients' health. In a controlled lab environment, physicians are paid by capitation and allocate limited resources to several patients. This implies a trade‐off between physicians' profits and patients' health benefits. We vary levels of resource scarcity and patient characteristics systematically and observe that most subjects in the role of physician devote a relatively stable share of budget to patient treatment, implying that they provide fewer services when they face more severe budget constraints. Average patient benefits decrease in proportion to physician budgets. The majority of subjects chooses an allocation that leads to equal patient benefits as opposed to allocating resources efficiently.