The Affordable Care Act has undoubtedly led to a litany of unintended consequences. The Congressional Budget Office expects that the law will reduce employment by the equivalent of 2.5 million people by 2024. Various businesses have either reduced hours for full-timers to avoid the employer mandate or stopped offering insurance to part-timers. One particularly public effect has been the rise of so-called “narrow provider networks” on health insurance exchanges, which limit access to hospitals, often excluding major medical centers.

But despite outrage from hospitals and patient groups, a recent analysis in Health Affairs suggests that these narrow networks are unlikely to hurt quality, and perhaps won’t hurt access, either.