Both Medicare and Medicaid are reducing payments to hospitals, and there is widespread concern that hospitals may respond by increasing prices to privately insured patients. Theoretical models of hospital behaviour have ambiguous predictions as to whether, and under what circumstances, hospitals...

In recent years, most health care markets in the United States (US) have experienced rapid penetration by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and preferred provider organizations (PPOs). During this same period, the US has also experienced slowing health care costs. Using a national...

This study examines the effect of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and for-profit HMO share on the survival of safety net services in hospitals between 1990 and 2004. The primary data sources are the American Hospital Association Annual Surveys, the Medicare hospital cost reports, and the...

This systematic review examines what factors explain the diversity of findings regarding hospital ownership and quality. We identified 31 observational studies written in English since 1990 that used multivariate analysis to examine quality of care at nonfederal general acute, short-stay US...