Nonprofit, For-Profit, and Governmental Provision of Health Care: Does Institutional Form Matter?

Award Year: 2000	Investigator: Burton Weisbrod	Budget: $249,242	Categories: Healthcare Organization
Abstract: Health care services in the U.S. are provided by an amalgam of for-profit, nonprofit, and governmental institutions. Dr. Weisbrod's project examines whether and, if so, how institutional form matters in health care delivery and what it suggests for improved policymaking. Building on his and other's earlier work, he explores the fundamental question of what nonprofit and governmental organizations contribute to health care that is not provided by the private sector. He focuses on the problems of rewarding organizational performance in forms that, while socially valuable, are privately unprofitable. He also explores difficulties that private enterprise confronts when outputs are complex and costly to measure. Differences in institutional behavior will be examined in a variety of service delivery settings. The results should shed light on the policy debate about the organization of the health care system and the desired balance between private, nonprofit, and governmental providers.