Value-Based Purchasing: The Effect of Hospital Ownership and Size

This research tests the effect of hospital ownership and size on value-based purchasing scores. Representative samples were randomly selected of short-term acute-care hospitals from across the nation and grouped into 3 categories of both ownership and size. The ownership categories are as follows: (1) for-profit, (2) nonprofit, and (3) government. The size categories are as follows: (1) small, 99 beds or fewer; (2) medium, 100 to 249 beds; (3) large, 250 beds or more. Value-based purchasing scores for the 12 process-of-care (PC) measures and the 8 patient experience-of-care (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System [HCAHPS]) measures were calculated and combined into their single total performance score (TPS). The results reveal that for-profit controlled hospitals outperform both nonprofit and government-controlled hospitals in PC measures, HCAHPS measures, and value-based purchasing TPSs. The results also reveal that small hospitals (≤99 beds) outperform both medium hospitals (100-249 beds) and large hospitals (≥250 beds) in PC measures, HCAHPS measures, and TPS. Results are discussed.