The Gerontologist, Vol 30, Issue 3 323-331, Copyright © 1990 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Ripple effects of PPS on nursing homes: swimming or drowning in the funding stream?

JH Swan, A de la Torre and R Steinhart
Health Care Administration, California State University, Long Beach 90840.

In a sample of 189 nursing homes, 83% reported that Medicare's hospital Prospective Payment System (PPS) impacts patient needs, 53% said it impacts both patients and services provided, and 25% said it impacts referrals to hospitals. The PPS effects were found to depend on the facility factors of size, Medicare certification, and tax status, and on the local market area factors of prevalence of PPS-nonexcluded hospital psychiatric units, competition, and levels of hospital discharges.