The effect of integration of hospitals and post-acute care providers on Medicare payment and patient outcomes.

ABSTRACT: In this paper we examine empirically the effect of integration on Medicare payment and rehospitalization. We use 2005-2013 data on Medicare beneficiaries receiving post-acute care (PAC) in the U.S. to examine integration between hospitals and the two most common post-acute care settings: skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and home health agencies (HHA), using two measures of integration-formal vertical integration and informal integration representing preferential relationships between providers without formal relationships. Our identification strategy is twofold. First, we use longitudinal models with a fixed effect for each hospital-PAC pair in a market to test how changes in integration impact patient outcomes. Second, we use an instrumental variable approach to account for patient selec

SUBMITTER: Konetzka RT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6081263 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature