You Had Me at Hello: Effects of Disruptions to the Patient-Physician Relationship

Despite considerable focus on coordination of care, little economic analysis has focused on relational coordination within the patient-physician relationship. I use data from the Military Health System where physicians are routinely pulled out of their practices and deployed. This provides plausibly exogenous variation to analyze effects on both patient outcomes and physician practice patterns. Preliminary results indicate patients are more likely to seek emergent or urgent care and less likely to seek preventive care.