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Trends in Direct Hospital Payments to Anesthesia Groups: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Nonacademic Hospitals in California.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:In addition to payments for services, anesthesia groups in the United States often receive revenue from direct hospital payments. Understanding the magnitude of these payments and their association with the hospitals' payer mixes has important policy implications. METHODS:Using a dataset of financial reports from 240 nonacademic California hospitals between 2002 and 2014, the authors characterized the prevalence and magnitude of direct hospital payments to anesthesia groups, and analyzed the association between these payments and the fraction of anesthesia revenue derived from public payers (e.g., Medicaid). RESULTS:Of hospitals analyzed, 69% (124 of 180) made direct payments to an anesthesia group in 2014, compared to 52% (76 of 147) in 2002; the median payment increased from $242,351 (mean, $578,322; interquartile range, $72,753 to $523,861; all dollar values in 2018 U.S. dollars) to $765,128 (mean, $1,295,369; interquartile range, $267,006 to $1,503,163) during this time period. After adjusting for relevant covariates, hospitals where public insurers accounted for a larger fraction of anesthesia revenues were more likely to make direct payments to anesthesia groups (? = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.10 to 0.81; P = 0.013), so that a 10-percentage point increase in the fraction of anesthesia revenue derived from public payers would be associated with a 4.5-percentage point increase in the probability of receiving any payment. Among hospitals making payments, our results (? = 2.10; 95% CI, 0.74 to 3.45; P = 0.003) suggest that a 1-percentage point increase in the fraction of anesthesia revenue derived from public payers would be associated with a 2% relative increase in the amount paid. CONCLUSIONS:Direct payments from hospitals are becoming a larger financial consideration for anesthesia groups in California serving nonacademic hospitals, and are larger for groups working at hospitals serving publicly insured patients.

SUBMITTER: O'Connell C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7583316 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Trends in Direct Hospital Payments to Anesthesia Groups: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Nonacademic Hospitals in California.

O'Connell Chloe C Dexter Franklin F Mauler David J DJ Sun Eric C EC

Anesthesiology 20190901 3

<h4>Background</h4>In addition to payments for services, anesthesia groups in the United States often receive revenue from direct hospital payments. Understanding the magnitude of these payments and their association with the hospitals' payer mixes has important policy implications.<h4>Methods</h4>Using a dataset of financial reports from 240 nonacademic California hospitals between 2002 and 2014, the authors characterized the prevalence and magnitude of direct hospital payments to anesthesia gr ...[more]

PMID: 31283739

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Project description:The Medicare and Premier Inc. Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID), a hospital-based pay-for-performance program, changed its incentive design from one rewarding only high performance (Phase 1) to another rewarding high performance, moderate performance, and improvement (Phase 2). We tested whether this design change reduced the gap in incentive payments among hospitals treating patients across the gradient of socioeconomic disadvantage.To estimate incentive payments in both phases, we used data from the Premier Inc. website and from Medicare Provider Analysis and Review files. We used data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Impact File to identify hospital characteristics.Hospitals were divided into quartiles based on their Disproportionate Share Index (DSH), from lowest disadvantage (Quartile 1) to highest disadvantage (Quartile 4). In both phases of the HQID, we tested for differences across the DSH quartiles for three outcomes: (1) receipt of any incentive payments; (2) total incentive payments; and (3) incentive payments per discharge. For each of the study outcomes, we performed a hospital-level difference-in-differences analysis to test whether the gap between Quartile 1 and the other quartiles decreased from Phase 1 to Phase 2.In Phase 1, there were significant gaps across the DSH quartiles for the receipt of any payment and for payment per discharge. In Phase 2, the gap was not significant for the receipt of any payment, but it remained significant for payment per discharge. For the receipt of any incentive payment, difference-in-difference estimates showed significant reductions in the gap between Quartile 1 and the other quartiles (Quartile 2, 17.5 percentage points [p < .05]; Quartile 3, 18.1 percentage points [p < .01]; Quartile 4, 28.3 percentage points [p < .01]). For payments per discharge, the gap was also significantly reduced between Quartile 1 and the other quartiles (Quartile 2, $14.92 per discharge [p < .10]; Quartile 3, $17.34 per discharge [p < .05]; Quartile 4, $21.31 per discharge [p < .01]). There were no significant reductions in the gap for total payments.The design change in the HQID reduced the disparity in the receipt of any incentive payment and for incentive payments per discharge between hospitals caring for the most and least socioeconomically disadvantaged patient populations.

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Project description:ImportanceIncreasing hospital costs for bronchiolitis have been associated with increasing patient complexity and mechanical ventilation. However, the associations of illness severity and diagnostic coding practices with bronchiolitis hospitalization costs have not been examined.ObjectiveTo investigate the association of patient complexity, illness severity, and diagnostic coding practices with bronchiolitis hospitalization costs.Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective cross-sectional study included 385 883 infants aged 24 months or younger who were hospitalized with bronchiolitis at 39 hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System database from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2019.ExposureHospitalization for bronchiolitis.Main outcomes and measuresInflation-adjusted standardized unit cost (expressed in dollar units) per hospitalization over time. A nested subgroup analysis was performed to further examine factors associated with changes in cost.ResultsA total of 385 883 bronchiolitis hospitalizations were studied; the patients had a mean (SD) age of 7.5 (6.4) months and included 227 309 of 385 883 boys (58.9%) and 253 870 of 385 883 publicly insured patients (65.8%). Among patients hospitalized with bronchiolitis, the median standardized unit cost per hospitalization increased significantly during the study period (from $5636 [95% CI, $5558-$5714] in 2010 to $6973 [95% CI, $6915-$7030] in 2019; P < .001 for trend). Similar increases in cost were observed among subgroups of patients without a complex chronic condition and without the need for mechanical ventilation. However, costs for patients without a complex chronic condition or mechanical ventilation, who received care outside the intensive care unit did not change in an economically significant manner (from $4803 [95% CI, $4752-$4853] in 2010 to $4853 [95% CI, $4811-$4895] in 2019; P < .001 for trend), suggesting that intensive care unit use was a primary factor associated with cost increases. Substantial changes in coding practices were observed. Among patients hospitalized with bronchiolitis, 1.2% (95% CI, 1.1%-1.3%) were assigned an APR-DRG (All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Group) for respiratory failure in 2010, which increased to 21.6% (95% CI, 21.2%-21.9%) in 2019 (P < .001 for trend). Increased costs and coding intensity were not accompanied by objective evidence of worsening illness severity.Conclusions and relevanceThis cross-sectional study suggests that hospitalized children with bronchiolitis are receiving costlier and more intensive care without objective evidence of increasing severity of illness. Changes in coding practices may complicate efforts to study trends in the use of health care resources using administrative data.

Dataset Information

Trends in Direct Hospital Payments to Anesthesia Groups: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Nonacademic Hospitals in California.

Publications

Trends in Direct Hospital Payments to Anesthesia Groups: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Nonacademic Hospitals in California.

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