Location: 368A Heady Hall

Description: Alex Hollingsworth (Indiana University, SPEA)

"Retail Health Clinics:  Endogenous Location Choice"

Abstract: Over 20% of Americans do not have adequate access to primary care services due to a lack of available physicians (HRSA, 2014). In response many have called for an increased role of the Nurse Practitioner. The retail health clinic, a recent innovation, is well suited to serve as a conduit for this expanded role. I examine retail health clinics by estimating the determinants of clinic location choice through a structural discrete choice model of clinic location that accounts for both demand and competition effects. This model incorporates a rich error structure that allows for spatial correlation and market level unobservable heterogeneity. I find that clinics are more likely to locate in areas that are populous, wealthy, educated, and white, and that they are less likely to locate in traditionally under-served communities, where the clinics were originally seen as a potential boon for access.