Spatial Competition between Health Care Providers:Effects of Standardization

In the international health care literature there is a broad discussion on impactsof competition in health care markets. But aspects of standardization in regionalhealth care markets with no price competition received comparatively little attention.We use a typical Hotelling-framework (reference case) to analyze a regionalhealth care market with two health care providers competing in (vertical) qualityafter the scope of medical treatment is set (horizontal quality). We conclude, thatin the reference case both health care provider will use vertical quality to separatefrom each other.[...]