TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chernew,Michael
AU  - DeCicca,Philip
AU  - Town,Robert
TI  - Managed Care and Medical Expenditures of Medicare Beneficiaries
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13747
PY  - 2008
Y2  - January 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13747
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13747.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Michael Chernew
Harvard Medical School
Dept. of Health Care Policy
180 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA  02115
Tel: 617/432-0174
Fax: 617/432-2648
E-Mail: chernew@hcp.med.harvard.edu

Philip DeCicca
Department of Economics
422 Kenneth Taylor Hall
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON L8S 4M4
CANADA
Tel: 905/525-9140
E-Mail: decicca@mcmaster.ca

Robert Town
Health Care Management Department
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
3641 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
E-Mail: rtown@wharton.upenn.edu
AB  - This paper investigates the impact of Medicare HMO penetration on the medical care expenditures incurred by Medicare fee-for-service enrollees. We find that increasing penetration leads to reduced health care spending on fee-for-service beneficiaries. In particular, a one percentage point increase in Medicare HMO penetration reduces such spending by .9 percent. We estimate similar models for various measures of health care utilization and find penetration-induced reductions, consistent with our spending estimates. Finally, we present evidence that suggests our estimated spending reductions are driven by beneficiaries who have at least one chronic condition.
ER  -