We examine the effect of commercial dental insurance concentration on the size of dental practices, the decision of dentists to own a practice, and the choice of dentists to work at a dental management service organization—a type of corporate group practice that has become more prevalent in the United States in recent years. Using 2013–2015 dentist-level data from the American Dental Association, county-level data on firms and employment from the United States Census, and commercial dental insurance market concentration data from FAIR Health^®, we find a modest effect of dental insurance market concentration on the size of dental practices. We also find that a higher level of commercial dental insurance market concentration is associated with a dentist’s decision not to own a practice. There is inconclusive evidence that higher levels of dental insurance market concentration impact a dentist’s decision to affiliate with a dental management service organization. Overall, our findings imply that dentists consolidate in response to increases in concentration among commercial dental insurers.

中文翻译：

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整合牙科行业：更深入地了解牙科付款人和提供者。

我们研究了商业牙科保险集中度对牙科诊所规模，牙科医生决定拥有一家诊所以及选择牙科医生在牙科管理服务机构工作的影响-一种越来越普遍的公司团体业务近年来在美国。从美国牙医协会2013 - 2015年使用牙医级数据，从美国人口调查，并从FAIR健康商业牙科保险市场集中度数据的企业和就业县级数据^®，我们发现牙科保险市场集中度对牙科诊所规模的影响不大。我们还发现，较高水平的商业牙科保险市场集中度与牙医决定不拥有执业资格有关。没有结论性的证据表明，较高水平的牙科保险市场集中度会影响牙医决定加入牙科管理服务组织的决定。总体而言，我们的发现表明，牙科医生会随着商业牙科保险公司集中度的提高而合并。