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Paper Number
1841
Paper Type
Complete
Description
During the era of COVID-19, many hospitals start to build their own online healthcare systems (hereafter referred to as online subsidiary healthcare systems). The presence of online subsidiary healthcare systems brings hospitals an additional traffic source; however, in the meanwhile, it cannibalizes hospitals’ traditional offline traffic. Using a game-theoretic model, we obtain the optimal design of such an online healthcare system and investigate its impact on the traditional offline healthcare system. Surprisingly, we find that instead of reducing the offline traffic, such an online subsidiary healthcare system actually incentivizes more patients to visit the hospital offline, failing to fulfill the purpose of adopting online healthcare during COVID-19. Moreover, we find that online healthcare systems do not necessarily improve the profitability of the hospital and the surplus of patients. Our findings provide important implications regarding the management and regulation of such online subsidiary healthcare systems.
Recommended Citation
Wang, Zhe; Kumar, Subodha; and Liu, Dengpan, "The Economics of Online Subsidiary Healthcare Systems" (2022). ICIS 2022 Proceedings. 14.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2022/is_health/is_health/14
The Economics of Online Subsidiary Healthcare Systems
During the era of COVID-19, many hospitals start to build their own online healthcare systems (hereafter referred to as online subsidiary healthcare systems). The presence of online subsidiary healthcare systems brings hospitals an additional traffic source; however, in the meanwhile, it cannibalizes hospitals’ traditional offline traffic. Using a game-theoretic model, we obtain the optimal design of such an online healthcare system and investigate its impact on the traditional offline healthcare system. Surprisingly, we find that instead of reducing the offline traffic, such an online subsidiary healthcare system actually incentivizes more patients to visit the hospital offline, failing to fulfill the purpose of adopting online healthcare during COVID-19. Moreover, we find that online healthcare systems do not necessarily improve the profitability of the hospital and the surplus of patients. Our findings provide important implications regarding the management and regulation of such online subsidiary healthcare systems.
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16-HealthCare