Health care reform and Connecticut's non-profit hospitals

The recent federal Health Care Reform Act signed into law by President Obama is expected to lead to greater patient volumes at non-profit hospitals in Connecticut (and throughout the country). The financial implications for these hospitals depend on how the costs per patient are expected to change in response to the anticipated higher patient volumes. Using a regression analysis of costs with annual data on 30 Connecticut hospitals over the period 2006 to 2008, we find that there are considerable differences between outpatient and inpatient unit cost structures at these hospitals. Based on the results of our analysis, and assuming health care reform leads to an overall increase in the number of outpatients, we would expect Connecticut hospitals to experience lower costs per outpatient treated (economies of scale). On the other hand, an influx of additional inpatients would be expected to raise unit costs (diseconomies of scale). After controlling for other cost determinants, we find that the marginal cost of an inpatient is about $8,000 while the marginal cost of an outpatient is about $44. This disparity may provide an explanation for our finding that the effect of additional patient volumes overall (combining inpatient and outpatient) is an increase in hospitals' unit costs.