2016
DOI: 10.1002/hec.3335
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Upcoding in a National Health Service: the evidence from Portugal

Abstract: For many years, evidence from the USA has pointed out to the existence of upcoding in management practices. Upcoding is defined as classifying patients in diagnosis-related groups codes associated with larger payments. The incentive for upcoding is not restricted to private providers of care. Conceptually, any patient classification system that is used for payment purposes may be vulnerable to this sort of strategic behaviour by providers. We document here that upcoding occurs in a National Health Service wher… Show more

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Cited by 45 publications
(46 citation statements)
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“…Those findings, along with the results of this study, suggest that the association between the payment levels and the quality of services may not be strong. On the other hand, the evidence of DRG‐specific volume effects and upcoding has been consistently documented in existing studies (Barros & Braun, ; Dafny, ; Januleviciute et al, ; Silverman & Skinner, ). This study adds to this body of literature by exploiting area‐specific price shocks and thereby, isolating the effects of windfall price increases on hospital behavior.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 64%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…Those findings, along with the results of this study, suggest that the association between the payment levels and the quality of services may not be strong. On the other hand, the evidence of DRG‐specific volume effects and upcoding has been consistently documented in existing studies (Barros & Braun, ; Dafny, ; Januleviciute et al, ; Silverman & Skinner, ). This study adds to this body of literature by exploiting area‐specific price shocks and thereby, isolating the effects of windfall price increases on hospital behavior.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 64%
“…Another possible response is that hospitals simply change their coding practices by shifting patients to more profitable DRG codes, a phenomenon called “upcoding” (Barros & Braun, ; Dafny, ; Januleviciute, Askildsen, Kaarboe, Siciliani, & Sutton, ). To examine this possibility, I closely follow Dafny (), who exploits the “paired” grouping system of the DRG codes.…”
Section: Other Behavioral Responsesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Early studies have already pointed to the unintended consequences of introducing DRG-based payment systems, 4 namely, the attempt by hospitals to increase revenues through fraudulent coding practices (e.g., Barros & Braun, 2017;Carter et al, 1990;Dafny, 2005;Januleviciute, Askildsen, Kaarboe, Siciliani, & Sutton, 2016;Silverman & Skinner, 2004). First, we complement empirical research on DRG upcoding in health care markets.…”
Section: Contribution To the Literaturementioning
confidence: 99%
“…FFS is used as control group to capture real changes in diagnoses that can be subtracted from the combined nominal and real changes in the MA diagnoses, after accounting for risk selection between MA and FFS. Using this approach, Kronick and Welch (2014) (Barros and Braun, 2016;Januleviciute et al, 2016). Sacarny (2016) evaluates hospitals' responses to a 2008 reform that increased Medicare payments for claims that had detailed codes describing the patients' type of heart failure.…”
Section: Notes: Based On 10% Sample Of Claims Submitted By Health Insmentioning
confidence: 99%