Private Equity’s Stake in Health Equity: Implications for Patient Access Across Outpatient Cardiology, Gastroenterology, & Obstetrics/Gynecology Physician Practices

Last registered on March 03, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Private Equity’s Stake in Health Equity: Implications for Patient Access Across Outpatient Cardiology, Gastroenterology, & Obstetrics/Gynecology Physician Practices
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015430
Initial registration date
February 23, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
March 03, 2025, 8:03 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Hasan Quadri
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-02-27
End date
2025-03-12
Keywords
Health, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project examines if, and to what extent, PE-affiliated outpatient physician facilities disrupt access for Medicaid insured patients vs. commercially insured patients by using a secret-shopper (audit) framework. An agent will contact physician clinics across three different physician specialties (Gastroenterology, Cardiology, and Obstetrics/Gynecology) as-if it is trying to set up a new patient appointment with the clinic. The analysis focusses on analyzing the call data through a series of linear regressions, considering the length of wait times for appointments and insurance acceptance rates.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Quadri, Hasan. 2025. "Private Equity’s Stake in Health Equity: Implications for Patient Access Across Outpatient Cardiology, Gastroenterology, & Obstetrics/Gynecology Physician Practices." AEA RCT Registry. March 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15430-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2025-02-27
Intervention End Date
2025-03-12

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Wait time (days) to schedule 1st available appointment; Wait time (days) to schedule 2nd available appointment; Insurance Acceptance Rate
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This project uses a secret-shopper (audit) framework to contact physician clinics across different specialties to set up a new appointment.
Experimental Design Details
After assembling a list of PE affiliated locations, each location will be called two times. One call will be as-if a Medicaid insured patient, and once more as-if a privately insured patient. The order of calls will be randomly assigned at the location level.

Controls are identified by identifying non hospital affiliated or corporate affiliated physician practices that fall within a distance limit from a PE location and that are within the same specialty.
Randomization Method
By computer
Randomization Unit
Location
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1600 locations
Sample size: planned number of observations
3200 phone calls
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
600 PE Locations (1200 calls), 1000 Non PE Locations (2000 calls).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard University Area Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2025-01-08
IRB Approval Number
IRB24-1614
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials