Expanding Patients' Property Rights In Their Medical Records / Laurence C. Baker, Kate Bundorf, Daniel Kessler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baker, Laurence C.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bundorf, Kate.

Kessler, Daniel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20565.

NBER working paper series no. w20565

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

Although doctors and hospitals own their patients' medical records, state and federal laws require that they provide patients with a copy at "reasonable cost." We examine the effects of state laws that cap the fees that doctors and hospitals are allowed to charge patients for a copy of their records. We test whether these laws affected patients' propensity to switch doctors and the prices of new- and existing-patient visits. We also examine the effect of laws on hospitals' adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems. We find that patients from states adopting caps on copy fees were significantly more likely to switch doctors, and that hospitals in states adopting caps were significantly more likely to install an EMR. We also find that laws did not have a systematic, significant effect on prices.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2014.