Rate setting and hospital cost-containment: all-payer versus partial-payer approaches.
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This article explores the relative cost-containment potential of hospital rate-setting programs that differ in the extent of payer coverage. While the analysis has implications for the impact that Medicare's prospective payment system (PPS) may have on overall hospital costs, this study is based on a comparison of all-payer and partial-payer state systems in the pre-PPS era. Data on hospital costs are drawn from the 1982 and 1983 American Hospital Association's Annual Surveys of Hospitals. The data confirm that all types of mandatory rate-setting systems are effective systems of cost control. The findings suggest that all-payer approaches may have some short-run advantages in terms of reducing the growth in hospital costs but that, as of 1983, they had not attained a lower level of costs (measured on a per-admission basis) than partial-payer systems. (+info)
Demand for outpatient mental health services in a heavily insured population: the case of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
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This article presents the results of a study of the impact of an increase in coinsurance on the demand for outpatient mental health services. The study population was a set of fully employed subscribers enrolled in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's Federal Employees Health Benefits Program at some time during the period 1979 through 1981. A two-part model was used to examine the determinants of both the probability of mental health service use and the level of use. Our results indicate little price sensitivity in either part of the model, but substantial and significant income elasticities. Our results concerning the role of various sociodemographic and environmental variables are also reported. (+info)
Factors affecting choice of health care plans.
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The research reported here examined the factors which affected the decision to remain with either Blue Cross of Washington and Alaska or Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, or to change to an independent practice association (IPA) in which the primary care physicians control all care. The natural setting allowed examination of the characteristics of families with experience in structurally different plans; a decision not influenced by premium differentials; the importance of the role of usual provider; and a family-based decision using multivariate techniques. An expected utility model implied that factors affecting preferences included future need for medical care; access to care; financial resources to meet the need for care; and previous level of experience with plan and provider. Analysis of interview and medical record abstract data from 1,497 families revealed the importance of maintaining a satisfactory relationship with the usual sources of care in the decision to change plans. Adverse selection into the new IPA as measured by health status and previous utilization of medical services was not noted. (+info)
Factors associated with variation in financial condition among voluntary hospitals.
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This article uses multiple regression analysis to identify factors which affect variations in the financial condition of voluntary hospitals in New York State. Six separate ratios are used to measure financial condition and 18 independent variables are considered. The factors affecting financial conditions were found to vary among dimensions of financial health, and different causal relationships were evident among hospitals in New York City than among those in the rest of the state. (+info)
Evidence from the National Survey of Family Growth. Work during pregnancy and subsequent hospitalization of mothers and infants.
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Large and increasing proportions of women work late into pregnancy and resume work soon after delivery. If work in those periods injures their health or that of their infants, this trend would be of public health concern. Data on ever-married primaparas from the National Survey of Family Growth conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics were used to investigate the relationship between working in the last trimester of pregnancy and two indicators of illness--hospitalization of women for complications of pregnancy and hospitalization of their infants during the first year of life. Hospitalization of the mother or child occurred for 15.0 percent of the primaparas. For primaparas who worked in the last trimester of pregnancy, the percentage was slightly higher--17.1 percent. In two groups, black women and women without hospital insurance for delivery, the percentage of mothers or infants hospitalized was much higher among the mothers who worked in the third trimester than among those who did not. The association of working late in pregnancy with higher rates of hospitalization does not mean, necessarily, that working is a cause of hospitalization. It does indicate, however, the need for epidemiologic and medical research on the relationship. (+info)
Voluntary health insurance coverage in California, 1952 to 1963.
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More than seven out of every ten of an estimated civilian population of 17.3 million people in California were covered under some form of voluntary health insurance at the close of 1963. Between 1952 and 1963, the number of Californians covered for hospital expenses increased from 5.7 million to 12.3 million; for surgical expenses from 5.4 million to 11.6 million; and for regular medical expenses from 3.0 million to 10.1 million. THE PERCENTAGE COVERED BY HEALTH INSURANCE ALSO ROSE SIGNIFICANTLY: for hospitalization, from 51.3 to 71.0 per cent; for surgical, from 48.2 to 67.1 per cent; and for regular medical from 27.2 to 57.9 per cent. The rate of increase in hospitalization coverage was slightly higher in California than in the total U.S.; however, the per cent of persons covered remains lower. For surgical coverage, both the rate of increase and the per cent covered are lower in California. For regular medical, growth rates in California and in the U.S. were similar, however the over-all per cent covered is significantly higher in California. Major medical coverage, which has shown the fastest growth rate, covered only 0.4 per cent of the U.S. population in 1952 and 17.1 per cent by the end of 1963. Comparable figures for California are not available. (+info)
A comparison of alternative medicare reimbursement policies under optimal hospital pricing.
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This paper applies and extends the use of a nonlinear hospital pricing model, recently posited in the literature by Dittman and Morey [1]. That model applied a hospital profit-maximizing behavior and studied the effects of optimal pricing of hospital ancillary services on the incidence of payment by private insurance companies and the Medicare trust fund. Here, we examine variations of the above model where both hospital profit-maximizing and profit-satisficing postures are of interest. We apply the model to three types of Medicare reimbursement policies currently in use or under legislative mandate to implement. The policies differ according to hospital size and whether cross-subsidies are allowed. We are interested in determining the effects of profit-maximizing and -satisficing behaviors of these three reimbursement policies on the levels of profits received, and on the respective implications for private payors and the Medicare trust fund. (+info)
The effect of case-mix adjustment on admission-based reimbursement.
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This paper addresses two questions: (1) Does adjusting for case mix have any effect on prospective admission-based reimbursement? and (2) How does the way in which case type is defined (DRG, ICD9CM, Age, etc) affect reimbursement systems? Data from 20 Maryland hospitals provided the basis for analysis, and the results illustrate how hospital reimbursement is affected under alternative definitions of case type (including no case type), showing highly significant variation. Implications for cost control and existing and proposed prospective reimbursement systems are discussed. (+info)