title: Altruism or moral hazard: the impact of hospital uncompensated care pools.
abstract: Empirical evidence from New Jersey supports theories of hospitals altruism. From 1987 to 1992, New Jersey reimbursed hospitals for uncompensated care through the Uncompensated Care Trust Fund. The Trust Fund reduced the shadow price of charity care, inducing hospitals to increase their provision of uncompensated care. Hospitals increased inpatient uncompensated care by an average of 14.8% and statewide uncompensated care increased by $360 million during 1987-1990. Empirical evidence suggests that the state effectively addressed the moral hazard problem created by the Trust Fund by auditing uncompensated care and regulating hospital collection procedures.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Care Research and Policy, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC 20007, USA.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Gaskin
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D005380:Financing, Government; D006302:Health Services Research; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D015271:Insurance Pools; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009515:New Jersey; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000191:economics; D013219:State Government; D017664:Uncompensated Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends