Journal of clinical anesthesia
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Our aim was to quantify the extent to which the distribution of patients among payers and changes to the payers' policies has influenced the market of surgery among hospitals in a relatively rural state. ⋯ We found the absence of a substantive effect of insurance and national US payment systems on the relative distribution of surgical cases among hospitals. Anesthesia groups should focus on payer and payment reform in terms of their effects on payment rates (e.g., average payment per relative value guide unit), not on their potential effects on hospital caseloads.