TY - JOUR
T1 - Medicare Payment Penalties and Safety Net Hospital Profitability
T2 - Minimal Impact on These Vulnerable Hospitals
AU - Bazzoli, Gloria J.
AU - Thompson, Michael P.
AU - Waters, Teresa M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Health Research and Educational Trust
PY - 2018/10
Y1 - 2018/10
N2 - Objective: To examine relationships between penalties assessed by Medicare's Hospital Readmission Reduction Program and Value-Based Purchasing Program and hospital financial condition. Data Sources/Study Setting: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, American Hospital Association, and Area Health Resource File data for 4,824 hospital-year observations. Study Design: Bivariate and multivariate analysis of pooled cross-sectional data. Principal Findings: Safety net hospitals have significantly higher HRRP/VBP penalties, but, unlike nonsafety net hospitals, increases in their penalty rate did not significantly affect their total margins. Conclusions: Safety net hospitals appear to rely on nonpatient care revenues to offset higher penalties for the years studied. While reassuring, these funding streams are volatile and may not be able to compensate for cumulative losses over time.
AB - Objective: To examine relationships between penalties assessed by Medicare's Hospital Readmission Reduction Program and Value-Based Purchasing Program and hospital financial condition. Data Sources/Study Setting: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, American Hospital Association, and Area Health Resource File data for 4,824 hospital-year observations. Study Design: Bivariate and multivariate analysis of pooled cross-sectional data. Principal Findings: Safety net hospitals have significantly higher HRRP/VBP penalties, but, unlike nonsafety net hospitals, increases in their penalty rate did not significantly affect their total margins. Conclusions: Safety net hospitals appear to rely on nonpatient care revenues to offset higher penalties for the years studied. While reassuring, these funding streams are volatile and may not be able to compensate for cumulative losses over time.
KW - Hospitals
KW - financial performance
KW - payment policy
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U2 - 10.1111/1475-6773.12833
DO - 10.1111/1475-6773.12833
M3 - Article
C2 - 29417574
AN - SCOPUS:85041643457
SN - 0017-9124
VL - 53
SP - 3495
EP - 3506
JO - Health Services Research
JF - Health Services Research
IS - 5
ER -