Financially Distressed Hospitals: A Profile of Behavior Before and After PPS

摘要

The report examines hospital financial distress using a national sample of approximately 80 percent of all hospitals participating in HCUP-2, the second wave of the Hospital Cost and Utilization Project data base, which covers the period from 1980 to 1987. The study examines relationships between financial distress and hospital revenues, costs, payment sources, treatment patterns, and patient discharge status. The results suggest that, compared with solvent hospitals, distressed hospitals served the poorly insured and the uninsured to a much greater extent; provided more charity care; had lower revenues; and had higher costs than expected, given their geographic locations and market conditions.