Essays on Healthcare Markets

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three chapters on healthcare markets. The first chapter presents the question of whether skilled nursing facilities are selectively admitting patients and provides preliminary evidence of those practices. The second chapter presents a structural model of selective admissions and simulates counterfactual policies using model estimates. Together, these first two chapters show the prevalence and impact of selective admissions in the nursing home industry, as well the effect of potential government policies intended to mitigate selective admission practices. The third chapter assesses the effects of a hypothetical US reference pricing policy that would cap prices in US markets using those offered in other countries, such as Canada. This third chapter is joint work with Pierre Dubois and Shoshana Vasserman.