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Does prospective payment reduce inpatient length of stay?

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  • Edward C. Norton
  • Courtney Harold Van Houtven
  • Richard C. Lindrooth
  • Sharon‐Lise T. Normand
  • Barbara Dickey

Abstract

A change in payment mechanism for inpatient care from per diem to per episode creates two incentives – a marginal and an average price effect – to change length of stay. The decrease in marginal price per day to zero should reduce the length of stay, while an increase in average price per inpatient stay should increase the length of stay. This study uses data from a natural experiment to estimate both marginal and average price elasticities, and to test whether the length of stay falls after the introduction of prospective payment in a sample of 8509 severely mentally ill patients. We estimate that the marginal price elasticity is zero, but the average price elasticity is between 0.16 and 0.20. The results were generally robust for short‐ and long stayers, and for persons admitted early and late after the change in payment mechanism. The model controlled for hospital fixed effects and individual random effects. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Edward C. Norton & Courtney Harold Van Houtven & Richard C. Lindrooth & Sharon‐Lise T. Normand & Barbara Dickey, 2002. "Does prospective payment reduce inpatient length of stay?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(5), pages 377-387, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:11:y:2002:i:5:p:377-387
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.675
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    3. Theurl, Engelbert & Winner, Hannes, 2007. "The impact of hospital financing on the length of stay: Evidence from Austria," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 375-389, August.
    4. Andrew Street & Conrad Kobel & Thomas Renaud & Josselin Thuilliez & ON BEHALF OF THE EURODRG GROUP, 2012. "How Well Do Diagnosis‐Related Groups Explain Variations In Costs Or Length Of Stay Among Patients And Across Hospitals? Methods For Analysing Routine Patient Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(S2), pages 6-18, August.
    5. Perelman, Julian & Shmueli, Amir & Closon, Marie-Christine, 2008. "Deriving a risk-adjustment formula for hospital financing: Integrating the impact of socio-economic status on length of stay," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 88-98, January.
    6. Edward C. Norton & Jangho Yoon & Marisa Elena Domino & Joseph P. Morrissey, 2006. "Transitions between the public mental health system and jail for persons with severe mental illness: a Markov analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(7), pages 719-733, July.
    7. David C. Grabowski & Edward C. Norton, 2012. "Nursing Home Quality of Care," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 29, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Gao, Chen & Xu, Fei & Liu, Gordon G., 2014. "Payment reform and changes in health care in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 10-16.
    9. R. Konetzka & Edward Norton & Sally Stearns, 2006. "Medicare payment changes and nursing home quality: effects on long-stay residents," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 173-189, September.
    10. Anurag Sharma, 2009. "Inter-DRG resource dynamics in a prospective payment system: a stochastic kernel approach," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 38-55, March.
    11. Jiale Zhang, 2007. "A DID analysis of the impact of health insurance reform in the city of Hangzhou," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(12), pages 1389-1402, December.
    12. Jiale Zhang, 2007. "A DID analysis of the impact of health insurance reform in the city of Hangzhou," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(12), pages 1389-1402.
    13. Marson, Marta & Migheli, Matteo & Saccone, Donatella, 2022. "Free to Die: Economic Freedoms and Influenza Mortality," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202210, University of Turin.
    14. Walsh, Brendan & Wren, Maev-Ann & Smith, Samantha & Lyons, Seán & Eighan, James & Morgenroth, Edgar, 2019. "An analysis of the effects on Irish hospital care of the supply of care inside and outside the hospital," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS91.
    15. Clara Pott & Tom Stargardt & Udo Schneider & Simon Frey, 2021. "Do discontinuities in marginal reimbursement affect inpatient psychiatric care in Germany?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(1), pages 101-114, February.
    16. Kuwabara, Hiroyo & Fushimi, Kiyohide, 2009. "The impact of a new payment system with case-mix measurement on hospital practices for breast cancer patients in Japan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 65-72, September.
    17. Cheng, Shou-Hsia & Chen, Chi-Chen & Chang, Wei-Ling, 2009. "Hospital response to a global budget program under universal health insurance in Taiwan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(2-3), pages 158-164, October.
    18. He, Daifeng & Mellor, Jennifer M., 2012. "Hospital volume responses to Medicare's Outpatient Prospective Payment System: Evidence from Florida," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 730-743.
    19. Perelman, Julian & Closon, Marie-Christine, 2007. "Hospital response to prospective financing of in-patient days: The Belgian case," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(2-3), pages 200-209, December.
    20. Helmut Herwartz & Christoph Strumann, 2012. "On the effect of prospective payment on local hospital competition in Germany," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 48-62, March.
    21. Varabyova, Yauheniya & Schreyögg, Jonas, 2013. "International comparisons of the technical efficiency of the hospital sector: Panel data analysis of OECD countries using parametric and non-parametric approaches," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 70-79.
    22. Luigi Siciliani & Peter Sivey & Andrew Street, 2013. "Differences In Length Of Stay For Hip Replacement Between Public Hospitals, Specialised Treatment Centres And Private Providers: Selection Or Efficiency?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 234-242, February.
    23. Jae-Young Lim, 2009. "The effect of communication between doctor and patient on patient's medical care use," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(13), pages 1369-1374.
    24. Mark Pletscher, 2016. "Marginal revenue and length of stay in inpatient psychiatry," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(7), pages 897-910, September.

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