TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sood,Neeraj
AU  - Buntin,Melinda Beeuwkes
AU  - Escarce,Jose J.
TI  - Does How Much and How You Pay Matter? Evidence from the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Prospective Payment System
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12556
PY  - 2006
Y2  - October 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12556
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12556.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Neeraj Sood
Department of Clinical Pharmacy
USC School of Pharmacy
1985 Zonal Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90033
Tel: 310/393-0411
Fax: 310/260-8156
E-Mail: nsood@usc.edu

Melinda B. Buntin
RAND
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica CA 90407
E-Mail: buntin@rand.org

Jose Escarce
UCLA Med-GIM-HSR
911 Broxton Avenue
Box 951736
Los Angeles, CA  90024
Tel: 310/794-3842
Fax: 310/794-0732
E-Mail: jescarce@mednet.ucla.edu
AB  - We use the implementation of a new prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) to investigate the effect of changes in marginal and average reimbursement on costs. The results show that the IRF PPS led to a significant decline in costs and length of stay. Changes in marginal reimbursement associated with the move from a cost based system to a PPS led to a 7 to 11% reduction in costs. The elasticity of costs with respect average reimbursement ranged from 0.26 to 0.34. Finally, the IRF PPS had little or no impact on costs in other sites of care, mortality, or the rate of return to community residence.
ER  -