Payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It has been shown that patients cared for at private for-profit hospitals have higher risk-adjusted mortality rates than those cared for at private not-for-profit hospitals. Uncertainty remains, however, about the economic implications of these forms of health care delivery. Since some policy-makers might still consider for-profit health care if expenditure savings were sufficiently large, we undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals.

Methods

We used 6 search strategies to identify published and unpublished observational studies that directly compared the payments for care at private for-profit and private not-for-profit hospitals. We masked the study results before teams

SUBMITTER: Devereaux PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC419772 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature