DETERMINANTS OF MANAGED CARE PENETRATION

This paper examines factors associated with differences in managed car e penetration across geographic areas. Two alternative measures of man aged care penetration are considered: the percentage of revenue physic ians received from managed care contracts and market survey data on en rollments in managed care plans. Results are similar for both types of measures. Our analysis suggests that demographics, labor market chara cteristics and supply side variables including the level of concentrat ion in hospital markets, hospital occupancy rates and the practice org anization patterns of physicians are all important determinants of man aged care penetration. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.