This paper explores the relationship between cost and quality of hospital care. A total operating cost function is estimated for 137 US Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals for 1988-1993 using three rate-based measures of quality as regressors. The high likelihood of the existence of...

The growth of the managed care model of health care delivery in the USA has led to broadened interest in the performance of health care providers. This paper uses multilevel modelling to analyse the effects of managed care penetration on patient level costs for a sample of 24 medical centres...

Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), limited-service alternatives for treating surgery patients not requiring an overnight stay, are a health‐care service innovation that has proliferated in the U.S. and other countries in recent years. This paper examines the effects of ASC competition on...