The Association of Market Mix of Hospital Ownership With MedicalDisputes: Evidence From China

摘要

The prevalence and severity of medical disputes in China have attracted theattention of society and academia, and how to alleviate medical disputes hasbecome a major concern. Following the implementation of a series of policies,the private sector in China’s hospital market has expanded rapidly over the pastdecade. It remains unknown whether the market mix of hospital ownership couldalleviate medical disputes, this study aims to bridge the gap. Data arecollected from all hospitals (2171) in Sichuan province, China, from 2012 to2015. Using a negative binomial hurdle model, the results show that forhospitals with disputes, the private hospital market share has an invertedU-shaped relationship with the number of disputes. However, no significantrelationship is found between the private hospital market share and theprobability of dispute occurrence. For hospitals with disputes, competitionplays a protective role in the effect of the private hospital market share onthe number of disputes, hindering the increase in the number of disputes andfacilitating a more rapid drop. However, medical quality is found to play aninsignificant role in that effect. The findings also support encouraging newprivate hospitals in China rather than privatizing existing publichospitals.