Changes in patient sorting to nursing homes under public reporting: improved patient matching or provider gaming?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To test whether public reporting in the setting of postacute care in nursing homes results in changes in patient sorting.

Data sources/study setting

All postacute care admissions from 2001 to 2003 in the nursing home Minimum Data Set.

Study design

We test changes in patient sorting (or the changes in the illness severity of patients going to high- versus low-scoring facilities) when public reporting was initiated in nursing homes in 2002. We test for changes in sorting with respect to pain, delirium, and walking and then examine the potential roles of cream skimming and downcoding in changes in patient sorting. We use a difference-in-differences framework, taking advantage of the variation in the launch of public reporting in pilot and nonpilot states, to co

SUBMITTER: Werner RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3064919 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature