Health Care Financ R
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The possibility of health care reform has helped focus attention on equity in the receipt of health care. This is a particular issue for the Medicaid program, as State variations in eligibility and payment policies have historically created inequity. ⋯ Findings indicate that federally mandated expansions significantly increased equity in the coverage of the poor, but inequality in real resources per enrollee remained significant. Although equity improved from 1984 through 1991, the increased use of provider-specific tax and voluntary donation (T&D) programs by traditionally high-spending States played an important role in the 1992 figures.
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Many of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries use global budgeting to control all or certain portions of their health care expenditures. Although the use of global budgets as a cost-containment tool has not been implemented in the United States in any comprehensive way, recent health care reform initiatives have increased the need for research into such tools. In general, the structure, process, and effectiveness of global budgets vary enormously from country to country, in part because the underlying social welfare system of each country is unique.
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Health Care Financ R · Jan 1993
Comparative StudyAllocating practice expense under the Medicare fee schedule.
Currently, relative value units for practice expense are determined under the Medicare fee schedule (MFS) using historical physician charges. This seems inconsistent with the goal of a resource-based fee schedule. ⋯ The method assumes that, for each service, the payment for practice expense should be the same proportion of the total payment as actual physician practice expenses are of total practice revenues. A comparison with the approach developed by the Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC) shows similar fees, but the specialty-based method proposed here requires no data beyond what is already employed in the MFS.
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Pediatric-modified diagnosis-related groups (PM-DRGs) were designed to describe more accurately than DRGs differences in severity of illness and charges across pediatric patients. We report on an evaluation of PM-DRGs for use in prospective payment systems (PPSs). ⋯ PM-DRGs explained substantially more variation in resource use at the discharge level and hospital level. PM-DRGs improved classification of neonatal discharges by concentrating them into fewer categories and measuring birth weight more precisely.
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This annual article presents information on health care costs by business, households, and government. Households funded 35 percent of expenditures in 1990, government 33 percent, and business, 29 percent. ⋯ Increased burden is particularly acute for business. The authors discuss the problems these rising costs pose for business, particularly small business, and some of the strategies businesses employ to constrain this cost growth.