BACKGROUND:

Medicare's Nonpayment Program of 2008 (hereafter called Program) withholds hospital reimbursement for costs related to hospital-acquired conditions (HACs). Little is known whether a hospital's Medicare patient load [quantified by the hospital's Medicare utilization ratio (MUR), which is the proportion of inpatient days financed by Medicare] influences its response to the Program.

OBJECTIVE:

To determine whether the Program was associated with changes in HAC incidence, and whether this association varies across hospitals with differential Medicare patient load.