Financial Effects of Remote Product Delivery: Evidence from Hospitals
研究远程医疗如何影响医院财务，发现它使农村医院收入下降、信用评级降低、融资成本上升，甚至面临关闭风险，而城市远程医疗提供者获益。
Abstract We study financial effects of remote product delivery in the healthcare industry. Exploiting staggered law adoption for identification, we find that telehealth provision redistributes hospital operations and access to capital away from rural communities. As urban telehealth providers acquire rural patients, rural hospitals experience decreased revenue and profit, credit rating downgrades, increased cost of capital, and ultimately risk of closure. Although telehealth reduces travel costs, some communities lose access to acute care. Overall, we conclude that remote healthcare services have financial consequences as well as real effects, and their benefits are unequally distributed.