Do rural incentives payments affect entries and exits of general practitioners?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do rural incentives payments affect entries and exits of general practitioners?

AU - Yong, Jongsay

AU - Scott, Anthony

AU - Gravelle, Hugh

AU - Sivey, Peter

AU - McGrail, Matthew

N1 - © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.

PY - 2018/10

Y1 - 2018/10

N2 - Many countries use financial incentive programs to attract physicians to work in rural areas. This paper examines the effectiveness of a policy reform in Australia that made some locations newly eligible for financial incentives and increased incentives for locations already eligible. The analysis uses panel data (2008-2014) on all Australian general practitioners (GPs) aggregated to small areas. We use a difference-in-differences approach to examine if the policy change affected GP entry or exit to the 755 newly eligible locations and the 787 always eligible locations relative to 2249 locations which were never eligible. The policy change increased the entry of newly-qualified GPs to newly eligible locations but had no effect on the entry and exit of other GPs. Our results suggest that location incentives should be targeted at newly qualified GPs.

AB - Many countries use financial incentive programs to attract physicians to work in rural areas. This paper examines the effectiveness of a policy reform in Australia that made some locations newly eligible for financial incentives and increased incentives for locations already eligible. The analysis uses panel data (2008-2014) on all Australian general practitioners (GPs) aggregated to small areas. We use a difference-in-differences approach to examine if the policy change affected GP entry or exit to the 755 newly eligible locations and the 787 always eligible locations relative to 2249 locations which were never eligible. The policy change increased the entry of newly-qualified GPs to newly eligible locations but had no effect on the entry and exit of other GPs. Our results suggest that location incentives should be targeted at newly qualified GPs.

KW - Adult

KW - Aged

KW - Australia

KW - Choice Behavior

KW - Female

KW - General Practitioners/psychology

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Motivation

KW - Professional Practice Location/statistics & numerical data

KW - Rural Health Services/economics

U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.014

DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.014

M3 - Article

C2 - 30177362

SN - 0277-9536

VL - 214

SP - 197

EP - 205

JO - Social science and medicine

JF - Social science and medicine

ER -