Lecture by Prof. Dr. Annika Herr, Leibniz Universität Hannover, at the VWL Research Seminar on 29.11.2022

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Annika Herr, Leibniz Universität Hannover, at the VWL Research Seminar on 29.11.2022
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Annika Herr from Leibniz Universität Hannover will give a lecture within the VWL research seminar on the topic of

Provider density and quality in German ambulatory long-term care.

The date is Tuesday, 29.11.2022, 16:00, in room FG1/00.08.

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Autoren: Annika Herr, Olena Izhak, Maximilian Lückemann

Abstract: "This paper analyses the effect of provider density on the quality of ambulatory long-term care (LTC) services in Germany, which supported 24 percent of the 4.1 million care dependent people in 2019 (21 percent received stationary care, 55 percent informal care). Ambulatory care is politically and individually preferred over stationary care and there are low barriers to entry. In this study, we analyse whether the increasing demand and the resulting increase in the number of providers changes quality given regulated prices. We use four waves of publicly available quality data of 14,000 ambulatory care units in Germany, reported between 2011 and 2019. To examine causal effects, we apply an instrumental variable approach and look at different quality and provider density measures. We show that quality decreases in provider density despite the fact that ambulatory care prices are regulated. To understand this unexpected result, in a second step, we examine a new mechanism and show that nursing staff shortage is correlated with both, higher provider density and lower quality in German ambulatory LTC. Increasing provider density should therefore be accompanied by attracting more qualified nursing personnel to circumvent adverse quality effects."