Supply factors as determinants of treatment costs: clinicians’ assessments of a given set of referrals to community mental health centers in Norway

摘要

BackgroundPrevious works that uses patterns of prior spending to predict future mental health care expenses (utilization models) are mainly concerned with demand (need) variables. In this paper, we introduce supply variables, both individual rater variables and center variables. The aim is to assess these variables’ explanatory power, and to investigate whether not accounting for such variables could create biased estimates for the effects of need variables.