New publication on dishonesty in health care in 'Health Economics'!

Heike Hennig-Schmidt published a paper in Health Economics on "Dishonesty in health care practice: A behavioural experiment on upcoding in neonatology“.

Abstract:  Dishonest behaviour significantly increases the cost of medical care provision. Upcoding of patients is a common form of fraud to attract higher reimbursements. Imposing audit mechanisms including fines to curtail upcoding is widely discussed among health care policy-makers. How audits and fines affect individual health care providers' behaviour is empirically not well understood. To provide new evidence on fraudulent behaviour in health care, we analyze the effect of a random audit including fines on individuals' honesty by means of a novel controlled behavioural experiment framed in a neonatal care context. Prevalent dishonest behaviour declines significantly when audits and fines are introduced. The effect is driven by a reduction in upcoding when being detectable. Yet, upcoding increases when not being detectable as fraudulent. We find evidence that individual characteristics (gender, medical background, and integrity) are related to dishonest behaviour. Policy implications are discussed.

More information: DOI: 10.1002/hec.3842.