title: Hospital ownership and financial performance: what explains the different findings in the empirical literature?
abstract: This study applies meta-analytic methods to conduct a quantitative review of the empirical literature on hospital ownership since 1990. We examine four financial outcomes across 40 studies: cost, revenue, profit margin, and efficiency. We find that variation in the magnitudes of ownership effects can be explained by a study's research focus and methodology. Studies using empirical methods that control for few confounding factors tend to find larger differences between for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals than studies that control for a wider range of confounding factors. Functional form and sample size also matter. Failure to apply log transformation to highly skewed expenditure data yields misleadingly large estimated differences between for-profits and not-for-profits. Studies with fewer than 200 observations also produce larger point estimates and wide confidence intervals.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, Naval Postgraduate School, Code GB, 555 Dyer Road, Monterey, CA 93943, USA. yshen@nps.edu
authors.forename: Yu-Chu
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eggleston
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Christopher H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Schmid
mesh_terms: D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005376:Financial Management / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006777:Hospitals, Proprietary / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010067:Ownership; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014481:United States