Health Policy Research Seminar: Jetson Jeder-Luis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law, Boston University

Event Details:

• Date: Thursday, September 26th
• Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
• Location: 1104 Blockley Hall (Note: Virtual attendees can join by accessing this link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/95353951407.)
• Topic: "Competition and Fraud in Health Care."

Abstract: Governments rely on private firms to provide public services such as health care, and these firms face incentives to commit fraud.  While a growing literature has addressed policy solutions to combat existing frauds, less attention has been paid to the relationship between the industrial organization of the markets for providing these services and the opportunities to commit fraud.  In this paper, we consider the role of competition in promoting or inhibiting fraud, with the Medicare durable medical equipment (DME) market as an example. Medicare moved from a regime of regulated prices to one in which firms compete to supply goods at lower prices. In theory, competition can either promote or inhibit fraud. Using new data on enforcement and prescribing behavior, we identify suspicious and fraudulent providers of DME. We show that increased competition and lower prices appears to benefit suspicious firms over legitimate ones.

Jetson Leder-Luis is an assistant professor at Boston University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER. His research focuses on fraud, misreporting, and overbilling in public expenditures, particularly within the Medicare program, as well as the impact of these behaviors on public spending and patient health outcomes. He is also interested in the detection and deterrence of fraud and corruption, as well as the statistical properties of misreported data. His work sits at the intersection of public economics, political economy, health economics, and law and economics.