Do report cards predict future quality? The case of skilled nursing facilities.

ABSTRACT: Report cards on provider performance are intended to improve consumer decision-making and address information gaps in the market for quality. However, inadequate risk adjustment of report-card measures often biases comparisons across providers. We test whether going to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) with a higher star rating leads to better quality outcomes for a patient. We exploit variation over time in the distance from a patient's residential ZIP code to SNFs with different ratings to estimate the causal effect of admission to a higher-rated SNF on health care outcomes, including mortality. We found that patients who go to higher-rated SNFs achieved better outcomes, supporting the validity of the SNF report card ratings.

SUBMITTER: Cornell PY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7248645 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature