Provider responses to discontinuous tariffs: evidence from Dutch rehabilitation care

Abstract Abrupt jumps in reimbursement tariffs have been shown to lead to unintended effects in physicians’ behavior. A sudden change in tariffs at a pre-defined point in the treatment can incentivize health care providers to prolong treatment to reach the higher tariff, and then to discharge patients once the higher tariff is reached. The Dutch reimbursement schedule in hospital rehabilitation care follows a two-threshold stepwise-function based on treatment duration. We investigated the prevalence of strategic discharges around the first threshold and assessed whether their share varies by p... Mehr ...