The Impact of the Massachusetts Health Care Reform on Unpaid Medical Bills.

The Massachusetts health care reform was expected to reduce the financial burden of medical care, but literature exploring this effect is limited. In this study, we use hospital financial information and a panel data difference-in-difference model to assess the impact of the Massachusetts health car...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Inquiry (00469580) Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 165 - 177
Main Author:	Arrieta, Alejandro
Format:	Article
Published:	Sage Publications Inc. Aug2013
Subjects:	Medicaid statistics Health care reform Medicaid Hypothesis Debt Financial statements Health facilities Insurance Research methodology Medically uninsured persons Pre-tests & post-tests Control groups Retrospective studies Statistical models Descriptive statistics Uncompensated medical care Safety-net health care providers Massachusetts
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

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Summary:	The Massachusetts health care reform was expected to reduce the financial burden of medical care, but literature exploring this effect is limited. In this study, we use hospital financial information and a panel data difference-in-difference model to assess the impact of the Massachusetts health care reform on unpaid medical bills. We find that the reform reduced the financial burden for patients, reflected by a 26percent decrease in hospital bad debt. The effect was more pronounced among safety-net hospitals, indicating a larger benefit for the most vulnerable population.