The effect of financial pressure on the quality of care in hospitals.
This paper examines the effect of financial pressure on hospital quality, using health outcomes after treatment for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as quality indicators. The financial pressure variables are: fiscal pressure from the Prospective Payment System (PPS) for inpatient care, and changes in health maintenance organization (HMO) penetration at the county level. The study shows that both types of financial pressures adversely affect short-term health outcomes, but do not affect patient survival beyond 1 year after patients' hospital admissions. Furthermore, the impact of HMO penetration appears to differ from that of Medicare payment changes for certain hospitals because HMO penetration encourages price competition.
Shen
Yu-Chu
YC
Health Policy Center, The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20037, USA. yshen@ui.urban.org
D016507:Cardiology Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D004465:Economic Competition; D018588:Fee-for-Service Plans / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005377:Financial Management, Hospital / Q000639:trends*; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006302:Health Services Research; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000191:economics / Q000401:mortality*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011445:Prospective Payment System / Q000191:economics*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D016019:Survival Analysis