Costs of Care and Administration at For-Profit and Other Hospitals in the United States

Methods We calculated administrative costs for 6227 nonfederal hospitals and the total costs of inpatient care for 5201 acute care hospitals in the United States for fiscal year 1994 on the basis of data the hospitals submitted to Medicare. We analyzed similar data for fiscal year 1990. Using multivariate analysis, we assessed the effect of hospital ownership (private not-for-profit, for-profit, and public) on administrative costs, controlling for hospital type, census region, hospital size, and the proportion of revenues derived from outpatient services. We adjusted inpatient costs for local wage levels, hospitals’ reporting periods, and case mix.