How do hospitals cope with sustained slow growth in Medicare prices?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate the effects of changes in Medicare inpatient hospital prices on hospitals' overall revenues, operating expenses, profits, assets, and staffing.

Primary data source

Medicare hospital cost reports (1996-2009).

Study design

For each hospital, we quantify the year-to-year price impacts from changes in the Medicare payment formula. We use cumulative simulated price impacts as instruments for Medicare inpatient revenues. We use a series of two-stage least squares panel data regressions to estimate the effects of changes in Medicare revenues among all hospitals, and separately among not-for-profit versus for-profit hospitals, and among hospitals experiencing real price increases ("gainers") versus decreases ("losers").

Principal findings

Medicare

SUBMITTER: White C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3922464 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature