Factors Affecting the Practice Location Decisions of General Practice Doctors in the Philadelphia Area
Open Access
Author:
Stuby, Luke Thomas
Area of Honors:
Economics
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Edward James Green, Thesis Supervisor David Shapiro, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Affordable Care Act Doctor Distribution Access to Care Poisson Regression
Abstract:
The Affordable Care Act will provide insurance for much of the previously uninsured population. The increase in the amount of insured patients sparks the question of access to care and whether there will be equality in care. Doctors face the decision of where to locate in the beginning and during their careers and this study will focus on factors that affect the practice location decisions of general practice doctors. The study will focus on the Philadelphia metropolitan and suburban area. A Poisson regression was employed to predict the location decisions of doctors and determine whether factors such as household income or demographics affected doctor location decisions. Policy implications based on the results are discussed and should help to provide more insight into policies directed toward redistributing doctors.
