Being diagnosed with a serious illness is a shock to the system, and treatment and recovery can mean major disruptions in a person’s life. But illness also takes millions of people out of the labor force every year and the quality of the care they receive can determine the extent to which this is a shock to the economy. IMF economist Nicola Pierri, with coauthors Anne-Line Koch Helsø and Adelina Yanyue Wang have published a research paper on The Economic Impact of Healthcare Quality. In this podcast, Pierri says low quality hospitals can wind up being very costly to both people and the economy at large.