Reimbursing for the costs of teaching and research in Finnish hospitals: a stochastic frontier analysis.
In this study stochastic frontier cost function was used to estimate the teaching and research costs of Finnish hospitals. Predicted efficiency adjusted costs were calculated and compared to evaluate the current level of teaching and research reimbursement. The efficiency adjustment had significant impact on the marginal and average cost estimates of the teaching and research output. The results suggest that the average rate of teaching and research reimbursement should be approximately 14.6% of the total operating costs in university teaching hospitals. The main finding was that the university teaching hospitals were underfunded with respect to both research and teaching output.
Linna
Miika
M
Center for Health Economics at Stakes (CHESS), National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Helsinki, Finland. miika.linna@stakes.fi
Häkkinen
Unto
U
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000191:economics*; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000191:economics*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036262:Empirical Research; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005387:Finland; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D014146:Training Support / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data