Health Provider Concentration and Medical Debt

• In Event: Access to Health Care

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of hospital consolidation on medical debt using variation in individuals' exposure to hospital mergers between 2014 and 2018. Using a consumer credit panel data from 2010 to 2020, we classify individuals as exposed or "treated" if they resided in a commuting zone that experienced a hospital merger that increased market concentration. Using a stacked event study design, we find that exposure to a hospital merger increases the probability that individuals have medical debt one year later by 1.9 percent. Despite this, we find no early evidence that mergers increase average medical debt flow. The two results together suggest that some individuals saw medical debt decline post-merger, enough to balance the amounts incurred by the newly indebted.

Author

• Alaa Abdelfattah, Occidental College
  Presenting Author