UNCOMPENSATED CARE - HOSPITALS RESPONSES TO FISCAL PRESSURES

This DataWatch examines the impact of hospital competition, the Medica re prospective payment system (PPS), and Medi-Cal selective contractin g on the provision of uncompensated care by private hospitals in Calif ornia during 1980-1989. It finds that hospitals subject to more intens e competition and greater fiscal pressure from Medicare and Medi-Cal r educed their provision of uncompensated care relative to hospitals fac ing less pressure from these sources. We estimate that had hospitals n ot been subjected to increasing price competition from growth of manag ed care plans and financial tightening in public programs, they would have provided 36 percent more uncompensated care than was actually pro vided in 1989.