Ingrid Huitfeldt

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 16(2) p. 150-181 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1257/POL.20210399

Long waits for health care raise concerns about the consequences of delayed treatment. We use variation in queue congestion to estimate effects of wait time for orthopedic surgery. We do not find that longer wait times lead to increased health care utilization. However, we do find persistent reductions in labor supply: long waits increase medium to long-term work absences and permanent disability receipt. Effects are driven by individuals who are on sick leave at referral. Our results are consistent with patterns of state dependence, where extended periods of temporary disability while awaiting treatment create persistent barriers to returning to work.

Tidsskrift for velferdsforskning 25(1) p. 1-9 Doi: https://doi.org/10.18261/tfv.25.1.5

Godkjenningsordningen i fritt behandlingsvalg (GFBV) ble innført i november 2015 og åpnet for at private tilbydere kunne søke om å bli godkjente leverandører av utvalgte behandlinger i spesialisthelsetjenesten, slik at de kunne behandle pasienter for det offentliges regning. Formålet med vår undersøkelse var å beskrive sosioøkonomiske kjennetegn ved pasientene som benyttet GFBV i 2017. For å oppnå dette ble Helfo-refusjoner koblet på individnivå med sosioøkonomiske variabler fra Statistisk sentralbyrå. Over 90 prosent av pasientene som benyttet GFBV, var bosatt i opptaksområdet til Helse Sør-Øst. 34 prosent av pasientene som brukte GFBV, hadde høyere utdanning, og gjennomsnittsinntekten var 362 000 kroner i året. Overrepresentasjonen av pasienter med høyere utdanning i GFBV forble statistisk signifikant (odds ratio 1,2; 95 % KI 1,1–1,3) etter samtidig kontroll for alder og kjønn.

Journal of Econometrics Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2021.12.016

Health Policy 125(6) p. 732-738 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.02.004

Health care providers’ response to payment incentives may have consequences for both fiscal spending and patient health. This paper studies the effects of a change in the payment scheme for hospitals in Norway. In 2010, payments for patients discharged on the day of admission were substantially decreased, while payments for stays lasting longer than one day were increased. This gave hospitals incentives to shift patients from one-day stays to two-day stays, or to decrease the admission of one-day stays. I study hospital responses using two separate difference-in-differences estimation strategies, exploiting, first, the difference in price changes across diagnoses, and secondly, the difference in bed capacity across hospitals. Focusing on orthopedic patients, I find no evidence that hospitals respond to price changes, and capacity constraints do not appear to explain this finding. Results imply that the current payment policy yields little scope for policymakers to affect the health care spending and treatment choices.

Journal of Health Economics 71 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.102254

Geographic variation in health care utilization has raised concerns of possible inefficiencies in health care supply, as differences are often not reflected in health outcomes. Using comprehensive Norwegian microdata, we exploit cross-region migration to analyze regional variation in health care utilization. Our results indicate that place factors account for half of the difference in utilization between high and low utilization regions, while the rest reflects patient demand. We further document heterogeneous impacts of place across socioeconomic groups. Place factors account for 75% of the regional utilization difference for high school dropouts, and 40% for high school graduates; for patients with a college degree, the impact of place is negligible. We find no statistically significant association between the estimated place effects and overall mortality. However, we document a negative association between place effects and utilization-intensive causes of death such as cancer, suggesting high-supply regions may achieve modestly improved health outcomes.