TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sloan,Frank A.
AU  - Picone,Gabriel A.
AU  - Taylor,Donald H., Jr.
AU  - Chou,Shin-Yi
TI  - Hospital Ownership and Cost and Quality of Care:  Is There a Dime's     Worth of Difference?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6706
PY  - 1998
Y2  - August 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6706
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6706.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Frank A. Sloan
Department of Economics
Social Sciences Rm 236
Duke University
Box 90097
Durham, NC 27708-1111
Tel: 919/613-9358
Fax: 919/684-6246
E-Mail: fsloan@duke.edu

Gabriel Picone
Dept. of Economics
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa, FL 33620
E-Mail: gpicone@coba.usf.edu

Shin-Yi Chou
Department of Economics
College of Business and Economics
Lehigh University
621 Taylor Street
Bethlehem, PA  18015-3117
Tel:  610/758-3444
Fax: NA
E-Mail: syc2@lehigh.edu
AB  - This paper compares cost and quality of care for Medicare patients hospitalized in for-profit hospitals contrasted with those in nonprofit and government hospitals following admission for hip fracture, stroke, coronary heart disease, or congestive heart failure.  Cost of care in for-profit hospitals was similar to that of nonprofits, but patients admitted to government hospitals incurred less Medicare payments  on average.  There were only small differences in survival between for-profit, nonprofit, and government hospitals.  Other measures of quality, including living in the community and activity of daily living limitations after index admission, show trivial differences by hospital ownership type.  Between private sector hospital types (for-profit and nonprofit) there is indeed not a dime's worth of difference between the two in terms of cost to Medicare and patient outcome.
ER  -