Hospital Billing Regulations and Financial Well-being: Evidence from California’s Fair Pricing Law
中文摘要
我们考察了2007年加利福尼亚州《公平定价法》的财务后果,该法对财务脆弱人群的医院账单设置了价格上限。利用该法暴露程度的横截面差异 (以县级无保险率作为代理变量),我们估计了其对个体财务结果的影响。我们发现,该法降低了发生进入催收程序的非医疗债务的可能性,并减少了进入催收程序的非医疗账户数量。此外,我们发现了信用评分有所提高的证据,并有提示性证据表明,在暴露程度更高的县,个体的逾期账户数量有所减少。我们的结果表明,医院计费监管能够改善目标人群的财务结果。
Abstract
We examine the financial consequences of the 2007 California Fair Pricing Law, which places a price ceiling on hospital bills for financially vulnerable individuals. Using cross-sectional variation in exposure to the law, proxied by county-level uninsured rates, we estimate its impact on individual financial outcomes. We find that the law reduces the likelihood of incurring non-medical debt in collections and the number of non-medical accounts in collections. In addition, we find evidence that credit scores increased and suggestive evidence that the number of delinquent accounts decreased for individuals in more exposed counties. Our results suggest hospital billing regulations can improve targeted individuals’ financial outcomes.