Hospital advertising increases emergency room visits and Medicare spending. Each 10% increase in ad spending boosts the rate of hospital admissions by nine per 100,000 residents, according to Penn University’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Direct-to-consumer health care advertising hit $25 billion last year, two-and-a-half times more than what it was in 2016. Most ads promote prescription drugs. Patient volumes increased more in for-profit hospitals, though ads didn’t push people to higher- or lower-quality facilities. Women account for up to 57% of all ER visits, according to the National Institutes of Health.
