TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ackerberg,Daniel A.
AU  - Machado,Matilde P.
AU  - Riordan,Michael H.
TI  - Measuring the Relative Performance of Providers of a Health Service
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8385
PY  - 2001
Y2  - July 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8385
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8385.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daniel Ackerberg
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
Lorch Hall
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
E-Mail: ackerber@econ.ucla.edu

Michael Riordan
Columbia Business School
608 Uris Hall
3022 Broadway
New York, NY  10027
Tel: (212) 854-9152
E-Mail: mhr21@columbia.edu
AB  - A methodology is developed and applied to compare the performance of publicly funded agencies providing treatment for alcohol abuse in Maine. The methodology estimates a Wiener process that determines the duration of completed treatments, while allowing for agency differences in the effectiveness of treatment, standards for completion of treatment, patient attrition, and the characteristics of patient populations. Notably, the Wiener process model separately identifies agency fixed effects that describe differences in the effectiveness of treatment ('treatment effects'), and effects that describe differences in the unobservable characteristics of patients ('population effects'). The estimated model enables hypothetical comparisons of how different agencies would treat the same populations. The policy experiment of transferring the treatment practices of more cost-effective agencies suggests that Maine could have significantly reduced treatment costs without compromising health outcomes by identifying and transferring best practices.
ER  -