Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 28, no. 4 (2009): w566-w572 (Published online 21 May 2009) doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.4.w566 © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Hospital Quality And Intensity Of Spending: Is There An Association?

Laura Yasaitis, Elliott S. Fisher, Jonathan S. Skinner and Amitabh Chandra

Numerous studies in the United States have examined the association between quality and spending at the regional level. In this paper we evaluate this relationship at the level of individual hospitals, which are a more natural unit of analysis for reporting on and improving accountability. For all of the quality indicators studied, the association with spending is either nil or negative. The absence of positive correlations suggests that some institutions achieve exemplary performance on quality measures in settings that feature lower intensity of care. This finding highlights the need for reporting information on both quality and spending.

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